Chapter 10 · The Seal Beneath the Gate

"Get your hand off me, Ronan."

His fingers tightened around my wrist.

"Keep fighting me, and the gate will drag you back."

"Good. Maybe it'll take me somewhere you can't reach."

The stone bucked beneath our boots.

A metal groan rolled through the tide shaft. The floor split open less than a foot from my toes, and black water blasted through the crack.

Ronan yanked me against his chest.

His body slammed into mine hard enough to steal my breath. Wet wool scraped my cheek. His heart pounded beneath my palm, fast and brutal, while the moon covenant burned around both our wrists.

"Move," he snapped.

"You move. You're the one who locked down the city."

"Because someone stole the west gate's pressure core."

"And somehow that's my fault?"

"No. But if that gate opens again, the harbor district goes under."

He shoved me toward the narrow service tunnel.

I caught myself against the wall, then spun on him.

"You don't get to order me around after rejecting me in front of the whole city."

His jaw clenched.

There it was. The question he'd dodged for months.