Chapter 17 · Echoes in the Deep

“Don’t touch that door.”

Rowan’s hand closed around Tessa’s wrist before her fingers reached the black metal seam.

The chain between them snapped tight. Heat ran from the seal under her collarbone straight into his palm, sharp enough to make her teeth click.

“Then stop standing in front of it,” Tessa said.

“Back up.”

“Are the guards behind us, or are you just bossy when you’re scared?”

His eyes cut toward the tunnel. “Both.”

A bell rang somewhere above them. Once. Then again, closer this time.

The Council guards had found the lower passage.

Tessa tugged against Rowan’s grip. He didn’t let go. His thumb pressed against the inside of her wrist, right over the pulse the seal had tied to his.

“If they catch us,” he said, “they take the seal.”

“And if they take the seal?”

“They cut it out of you.”

The bell rang a third time.

Tessa stopped pulling. “You could’ve led with that.”

“I did. You were busy being stupid.”

“Keep calling me stupid and I’ll make sure they take your arm with the seal.”

“That would require you to get close enough.”

“I’m already close enough.”

For half a second, neither of them moved.