Chapter 43 · The Council's Heart

My fingers caught Calian's wrist three inches above the black water.

His body dropped hard enough to wrench my shoulder. The oath-spike in his chest flashed white, and the pain tore through both of us. I bit down on a scream and locked my other hand around a jagged piece of bridge stone.

"Don't let go," I snapped.

Calian looked up at me. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth, bright against his skin.

"Lia, cut me loose."

"Try that again."

"Cut me loose. The bridge is collapsing because of me."

"No. It's collapsing because the people who built this place wanted us to choose who dies. I'm not helping them."

The black water surged below him. It didn't splash. It reached. Thin ropes of dark liquid curled around his boots and dragged him down another inch.

His grip tightened around my wrist.

"You can't hold me and crack the core archive," he said. "You need both hands."

"Then I'll do it with one."

"You always make everything harder."

"And you always decide you're the only one worth saving.