Chapter 54 · The Mark Won't Cut

Calian caught my wrist before the blade touched the oath stone.

“Lia, stop.”

His fingers locked around me hard enough to hurt. Heat ran from his palm into the black mark circling my wrist, and the mark answered with a sharp burn.

I twisted against him. “Let go.”

“You don’t know what that blade will do.”

“I know exactly what it will do.” I shoved my shoulder into his chest. “It cuts the sacrifice clause.”

“It cuts me out.”

The rift behind us cracked like glass under a boot. A sheet of red light tore across the chamber, throwing Calian’s face into harsh shadows. Dust dropped from the broken ceiling. The oath stone sat between us, split down the center, pulsing with a dull black glow.

The core was coming down.

Calian pulled me back from the edge. His coat dragged over my bare arms, rough and hot from the energy pouring through him.

“You heard the order,” he said. “The stone needs a life to seal the rift.”

“It needs your life because the council wrote it that way.”