Chapter 60 · Take Him Out of the Oath

"Get your hands off him."

Sevryn's fingers tightened around Calian's throat.

Calian's boots dragged across the black stone as Sevryn hauled him back from the oath chamber. Blood ran from the old mark on Calian's palm, dark and wet against his skin.

"You still think you get to give orders?" Sevryn asked.

"I just did."

I stepped between them before my fear could talk me out of it. The oath stone burned behind my back. Its heat pushed through my coat and into my spine.

Sevryn looked at me like I was an annoying child standing in traffic. "Move, Lia."

"No."

His mouth twitched. "You don't understand what you're touching."

"I understand enough. You're using Calian's oath to keep the city under your boot. We're cutting him out of it."

Calian's eyes snapped to mine. "Lia, don't."

"You said the stone can be rewritten."

"Not like this."

"Then tell me how. Quickly."

Sevryn slammed Calian against the carved wall. Stone cracked under Calian's shoulder.

"He doesn't tell you anything," Sevryn said. "That is the point of a guardian. He obeys.