Chapter 55 · Only One Keeper

"Don't seal it! There are people under the gate!" I slammed both hands against the emergency lever, but Ronan locked an arm around my waist and dragged me back.

The chamber bucked beneath our boots. Red water burst through the seams, hot against my face. Beyond the grated platform, Gate Seven groaned under the moon tide.

Three workers were trapped on the lower maintenance bridge.

One beat a wrench against the glass. Blood ran from another man's nose. The third knelt with both hands pressed to the glowing channel cut into the floor.

"Mara, look at me." Ronan tightened his hold. "The gate drops in less than two minutes."

"Then move your hand."

"If I let you cross that platform, the tide takes you with it."

"People are already in there!"

He spun me around. My back hit his chest. His breath burned against my ear, hot and rough. His heart slammed against my back through his soaked coat.

"If I open the inner lock, the harbor district floods," he said. "Eight thousand people. Maybe more."

"And if you close it?"

His silence cut deeper than the shaking floor.

I shoved his arm away. "Say it."

"The workers die.