Chapter 19 · Key to the Void

"Tell me what you did to my mother." I shoved Rowan against the vault door before he could reach for me.

His shoulder hit the metal with a hard clang. The chain between our wrists snapped tight, dragging me against his chest. Heat pushed through his coat. His breath touched my cheek, sharp with pain and whatever the seal had burned out of him.

"Not here," he said.

"You always say that right before somebody tries to kill me."

"Because somebody is always trying to kill you."

I pressed the broken edge of my knife under his jaw. His pulse jumped against the blade. Good. Let him feel one thing he couldn't hide.

"You locked Vault Nine," I said. "You stood there while Mara and that little girl were trapped behind it. You knew my mother was alive."

Rowan's eyes went flat. Not calm. Worse. He looked like a man holding a door shut with both hands while something on the other side screamed.

"I knew Mara was inside," he said. "I didn't know you were.