Chapter 22 · The Tide Core

"You need to run, Mara." Cassian ripped the command badge from his coat and shoved it into my palm. "Right now. Before they decide the order means you."

The metal was still warm from his chest.

I closed my fingers around it. "You just told me this tower was sealed."

"It was."

"By you."

His jaw tightened. "Not anymore."

Boots pounded across the upper platform outside the control room. More than four guards. Heavy armor. Council issue.

I looked from the badge to his face. "You called them."

"I called for a transfer team. Evelyn sent an arrest squad."

"For me?"

"For both of us if I stand in their way."

That answer hit harder than it should've.

Cassian Rook had rejected me in front of half the harbor. He'd stared straight at the bond mark between us and called it a mistake. A political problem. Something he could cut away with one cold sentence.

Now he stood between me and the door, one hand resting on his sword.

I hated that my body still noticed him first. His heat. The sharp smell of salt and steel.