Chapter 50 · The Core Tells the Truth

"If you take one more step, Calian, I swear I'll put this stone through your chest."

The oath-stone shook in my hand. So did the floor beneath my boots.

Calian stopped three feet from me, one hand pressed against the black mark burned into his ribs. Blood slipped between his fingers. His face had gone pale, but his eyes stayed locked on mine.

"Lia, put it down."

"You first. Drop the blade."

He glanced at the knife in his other hand. The blade was already pointed at his own oath-mark.

Noah stood behind him with a broken pipe raised over his shoulder. His left cheek was split open. The council guards had left him bleeding beside the core chamber door, and he still looked ready to swing at the next person who moved wrong.

"This is getting ridiculous," Noah snapped. "Can somebody explain why the guardian is trying to carve out his own heart?"

"The command changed," Calian said.

"To what?"

Calian's jaw tightened. "To me."

The oath-stone pulsed in my palm.