"You left me no choice."
Dorian finally looked me in the eye.
I smiled without warmth. "You always have a choice. You just like the one that keeps your hands clean."
A murmur swept through the council chamber.
Silas smiled.
That smile made my choice for me.
I drove my elbow into the guard's ribs, twisted free, and slammed both hands onto the black case.
"Mara—don't!" Dorian lunged across the table.
Too late.
My fingers found the hidden latch beneath the lid. I pressed it.
The case snapped open.
Cold blue light burst across the table. The recording core inside was smaller than my palm, wrapped in burned copper wire.
The instant air touched it, the core screamed.
Every lamp in the chamber flashed blue.
"What the hell—"
"Shut it down!"
"The shield!"
The shouting crashed together as Dorian caught me around the waist and dragged me back.
My spine hit his chest. His arm locked across my middle, hard enough to bruise.
Heat soaked through my clothes. His breath scraped the side of my neck.
"What did you do?" he demanded.
"I opened the evidence you were so desperate to hide."
"Shut it down."
"I can't."
"You built the breaker."
"I built a recorder, not a damn bomb."
A sharp crack split the ceiling.
The shield was breaking.
The sound crawled through my teeth. Above us, blue light tore across the dome. A black seam opened over the center of the city.
Silas shoved away from the table. "Commander, seal the hall!"
"I'm trying."
Dorian released me and lifted his hand. Power burst from the seal on his glove, racing toward the chamber doors.
The doors slammed shut.
Guards drew their weapons.
I grabbed the recording core before Silas could reach it.
"Mara!" Dorian barked. "Put it down."
"No."
"The shield is tearing."
"Because someone tampered with it."
"You just fed it a live circuit."
"Then tell them why the circuit answered to your command seal."
His face went blank.
The core pulsed in my hand.
A broken voice crackled from it, chopped apart by static.
"—third failure confirmed. Commander access accepted. Transfer begins at midnight—"
The message died.
Every head turned toward Dorian.
Silas pointed at me. "She forged it. Arrest her now."
"You heard the recording," I snapped. "The shield recognized Dorian's seal."
Dorian's eyes dropped to the core. Then they lifted to mine.
"Give it to me."
"Not a chance."
"Mara, listen to me."
"No. You listen." I raised the core between us. "You rejected my bond, buried my brother, and locked me out of the city. Now your seal is inside the sabotage record. You don't get to touch the proof."
The muscle in his jaw jumped.
Not guilt.
Something sharper.
Fear, maybe.
I didn't care enough to name it.
The bond between us had always been vicious. Even before the moon chose it, my body knew him. His anger tightened my skin. His fear twisted my stomach.
And standing this close, I felt his heartbeat pounding against my back.
Dorian reached for me.
I stepped away.
His hand closed around my wrist.
"Don't."
His palm burned against my skin.
"Let go."
"You're going to get yourself killed."
"You already tried that three years ago."
His fingers tightened. "I never told them to kill you."
"You told them I wasn't yours."
The words hit the room harder than the cracking shield.
Dorian's thumb stopped over my pulse.
For one second, he didn't look like the commander who had stood before the council and erased me.
He looked like the man who had once held my face between both hands and promised no one would ever touch me.
Then white light poured through the broken dome.
The moon shouldn't have been visible from inside the council hall. The shield blocked the sky completely. But the tear widened, and cold light washed over every face in the chamber.
My wrist seared.
I gasped and jerked against him.
Dorian swore. "Mara—"
A silver mark appeared beneath his fingers.
It spread across my skin like ink dropped into water.
"What the hell is that?" one of the captains shouted.
"Let her go," Silas ordered.
Dorian didn't move.
Not because he was defying Silas.
His own wrist had started burning.
The same silver line crawled beneath his skin, circling the bone. It ran from his hand to his forearm, then shot across the space between us in a burst of white heat.
My knees buckled.
Dorian caught me against his chest.
"Mara," he said, low and rough. "Look at me."
"Don't tell me what to do."
His arm tightened around my waist. His coat scraped my cheek. His breath warmed my ear.
"Your mark is reacting to mine."
"You rejected me."
"I know."
"You stood in front of this entire council and said I wasn't your mate."
"I know what I said."
"Then why is this happening?"
He stared at the silver mark.
For the first time since I entered the chamber, Dorian looked afraid.
That scared me more than the breach.
A shadow moved inside the tear above us.
Not smoke. Not falling stone.
Something with shoulders slipped through the split in the shield and dropped toward the council hall.
The guards raised their weapons.
Silas shouted, "Commander, kill it!"
Dorian dragged me behind him.
The mark on our wrists pulled tight.
Pain ripped up my arm. I cried out and grabbed his coat. The fabric bunched in my fist as his body slammed back into mine.
"What did you do?" I demanded.
"Nothing!"
"Liar!"
"I didn't call it here!"
The shadow struck the floor between the council table and the sealed doors.
Stone exploded.
Guards stumbled back. Silas slammed into the table. The recording core flew from my hand and skidded across the floor.
Dorian's sword cleared its sheath with a vicious ring.
He shoved me behind his shoulder.
I ripped the weapon from his belt anyway.
The silver mark burned brighter around both our wrists.
"Mara, stay behind me."
"You don't get to reject me and play protector."
"This isn't about the rejection."
"It is for me."
The shadow lifted its head.
I couldn't see a face. Only two pale points beneath a hood of darkness.
They turned toward me.
The bond snapped tight.
Dorian's hand closed over mine on the sword hilt. His chest pressed against my back, solid and hot. His breath brushed my ear.
"Don't move," he whispered.
The thing took one step.
The silver mark locked our wrists together in a flash of moonlight.
Dorian raised his blade.
Then he shouted, "Guards, take Mara Voss—