Chapter 55 · The Gates Are Open

The next blast hit before I could answer.

The eastern wall split with a shriek of stone and steel. Freezing air slammed into the council chamber, dragging ash, smoke, and Hollowmere's distant screams through the gap.

Above the rooftops, the shield blinked once.

Twice.

Then it vanished.

Silas laughed across the room.

"The gates are open," he said. "Give me the woman, Dorian, or watch your city fall."

Dorian stepped in front of me again. Blood slid from the cut at his throat and vanished beneath his torn collar.

"You want control?" he shouted. "Take the council. Take the seal. Take every title they gave me. But you don't get her."

Silas's eyes slipped past him and locked onto mine.

"He still thinks you belong to him."

"She doesn't belong to anyone," Dorian snapped.

His voice cracked through the chamber harder than the alarms.

Then he dropped to one knee.

The council went silent.

So did I.

Dorian pressed one hand to his bleeding throat. His other stayed open beside me, palm up.