Chapter 67 · The Guardian Breaks Rank

"Don't touch the core, Calian."

My hand was already inside the black light.

The thing wrapped around my wrist like a living wire. It burned through my sleeve, through skin, straight into bone. The city below us shook hard enough to throw dust from the cracked ceiling.

Calian caught me around the waist and dragged me back.

"You heard me," he snapped. "Get away from it."

"Funny. I was about to say the same thing."

"Lia."

"Let go."

His grip tightened. His palm covered half my stomach. Heat pushed through my shirt, sharp and steady, while the Blacktide core spun three feet away, sucking sparks from the broken chamber into its dark center.

It had already taken Noah's blood.

It had already taken the council seal.

Now it wanted mine.

"If I feed it what it wants, the rift closes," I said. "That's the only reason you dragged me here."

"No. I dragged you here because the council wants you dead before you can expose them. There is a difference."

"You still brought me to the core.