Chapter 7 · The Living Key

"Get your hand off me, Ronan."

His fingers tightened around my wrist before the last line of blood finished crawling across my palm.

The hidden contract had written half my name in red. The moon covenant burned beneath my skin, hot enough to make my teeth ache.

Ronan blocked the council doors with his body. One shoulder. No way around him.

"If I let go, the contract will finish itself," he said.

"Then let it." I jerked against his grip. "Maybe it can drag me out of this charming little prison."

"Mara."

"Don't use that voice with me." I pulled harder. "You rejected me in front of the whole city, chained me to your defenses, and now some blood-soaked scrap is trying to claim me. You don't get to sound worried."

His jaw tightened.

Up close, he looked worse than he had on the council floor. A cut split his lower lip. His black coat was torn near the ribs, and his body heat pushed through the thin fabric between us.

The moon covenant reached for that heat.

So did I.

The bond cinched tight in my chest, dragging me toward him like a leash.