Chapter 65 · The Sacrifice Seat

"Don't touch him!" I slammed both hands against the guardian chain, and the black metal burned straight through my gloves.

Calian jerked against the sacrifice seat. His wrists were pinned above his head, his shirt cut open from collar to waist. Thin black lines crawled beneath his skin, pulsing in time with the deep, ugly thud coming from the Blacktide core.

"Lia! Get back!" he shouted.

"You first."

"I can't move."

"Then stop ordering me around."

The chamber shook. Dust fell from the iron ribs overhead. Across the sacrifice ring, twelve guardians stood in a half-circle with their blades drawn. None of them looked at me for long. They kept watching Calian.

Their captain stepped forward. Sevryn Moore wore a council seal at his throat and the kind of calm face people trusted right before they ruined your life.

"Vale," he said, "step away from the core. The exchange has already started."

I looked at Calian's chest.

A red line had appeared beneath his ribs.