Chapter 52 · No One Gets Sacrificed

"Don't take another step, Calian. That rift is eating the floor under your boots."

He stopped with one foot hanging over the split stone.

Black water churned below him. Not water, exactly. It moved like smoke trapped under glass, full of white sparks and pieces of broken metal. The core anchor stood on the far side of the gap, six feet away, wrapped in cables that pulsed with the city's light.

Calian looked back at me.

"You said you could hold the bridge."

"I said I could hold it for thirty seconds. You've used twenty-seven."

"Then stop wasting my time."

His jaw tightened. The black oath-mark around his wrist burned brighter, crawling up his veins in thin silver lines.

I hated that mark. I hated the way it answered every command before he could fight it. I hated the way his pain kept showing up in my own skin, hot under my ribs, like my body had signed the order too.

"You're not crossing alone," I said.

"Lia."

"Don't use that voice with me.