Chapter 18 · The Gate Reverses

"You ordered them to erase me."

The gate answered in my voice.

Every hair on my arms rose.

Ronan stood three steps away, blood dripping from his nose. His palm was pressed against the cracked seal beneath the well floor. Blue light crawled over his knuckles, burning straight through his skin.

"Mara, listen to me."

"No. You listen."

I backed away, even with the bond pulling tight between us. "The gate just said your name. It said you ordered my bloodline erased."

His jaw locked.

That pause hurt worse than the accusation.

"You knew," I said. "All this time, you knew what I was, and you let the council call me a defective tide-worker."

"I let them call you alive."

"That doesn't even make sense."

"It will if you stop fighting me for five seconds."

The seal bucked under his hand. A crack split across the black stone.

Pain slammed through my wrist. I grabbed it with my other hand.

Ronan flinched too.

Not from the seal.

From me.

"Get your hand off it," I snapped.

"If I do, it opens."

"Then let it open. Maybe it can drown the truth out of you."

His eyes cut to mine.