Chapter 44 · If I make it out

He pressed his forehead to the stone under my hand. His hair brushed my fingers. For one breath, the water, the cracking bridge, and the council's command fell away.

"If I make it out," he said, "you can't run from what I told you."

"If you make it out, I'll make you repeat it in a room with four walls and no death trap."

His mouth twitched. "That sounds like a threat."

"It is."

"Good."

He pushed upward.

I reached for the pillar with my free hand. My mark stretched farther, a burning thread crawling across the floor. The black lines around the pillar turned silver. Symbols unfolded under my palm, one after another, too fast to read.

Then a voice cut through the chamber.

"Unauthorized access. Life anchor required."

Calian froze below me.

"What did it say?" I asked.

"Don't touch it."

"That wasn't my question."

"It said the archive needs a living anchor."

"You were the anchor."

"I was bound to the old oath. That oath is gone."

The pillar pulsed.