Chapter 19 · The Command Beneath the City

"Don't touch him!" I hit the stone hard enough to split the skin across my palm.

The black floor rolled under me. Not like an earthquake. Like something breathing.

Calian landed three feet away, shoulder first. His injured arm folded beneath him, and the crossbow wound opened again. Blood ran down his coat and disappeared into the cracks beneath us.

Noah was worse.

He hung against a wall of dark glass, wrists pinned above his head by silver lines. His face was gray. His boots scraped uselessly against the stone.

"Lia," he rasped. "Don't let him reach the center."

"I heard you the first time." I shoved myself up. My knees shook, but they held. "How do I get you down?"

"You don't. You get out."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one you've got."

Calian grabbed my ankle.

His fingers were hot. Too hot. The life binding pulled tight between us, and pain flashed from his wound into my chest. I dropped beside him with a curse.

"Stay down," he said.

"You stay down.