Chapter 25 · The Shard Starts Counting

"Get away from him!"

I slammed my shoulder into the white shard before it could sink any deeper into Cade's chest.

The impact threw me backward. The shard didn't move. Cade did. His body jerked against the broken execution platform, and his hand shot out to catch my wrist.

"Lena." His voice came out rough. Too low. "Don't touch it."

"You shoved it into yourself. You don't get to give me orders now."

"Apparently, I do."

Red marks burned beneath his skin.

Nine lines.

Eight.

Seven.

Each number flashed across his chest, then vanished beneath the shard's milky surface.

Behind us, the judgment hall split from floor to ceiling. Stone crashed into the darkness below. The old execution dais tilted, dragging both of us toward the widening crack.

Across the collapse, Evelyn Shaw pressed one hand against a control seal. Her silver coat hung torn at the shoulder, but the panic she'd worn when Cade became the anchor was gone.

That scared me more than the falling floor.

"You heard her," Evelyn called. "The trial has started."

"You said the core needed a living anchor!" I shouted. "You never said it would start eating him!"

"It isn't eating him.