Chapter 24 · Court Blood

"Get your hand off me, Cassian."

His fingers clamped harder around my wrist.

The floodgate floor bucked under our boots. Red numbers flashed across the control room wall.

00:04:12.

"If I let go, you'll run straight into the core," Cassian said. His voice was still rough from the kiss the alarm had cut short. "And the core will tear you apart."

"You don't get to kiss me, pour your life into my veins, and start giving orders again."

"Mara, listen."

"No. You listen."

I twisted against him. His palm burned around my skin, too familiar after all those nights I'd spent trying to forget that hand.

"You rejected me in front of the whole harbor," I snapped. "You made sure every person in Blackwater watched me stand there alone. Now the city's drowning, and suddenly I'm useful?"

His jaw locked.

Behind him, Cyrus slammed both hands onto the control console. "Save the relationship disaster for later. The lower wards have three minutes and fifty-eight seconds."

"You heard him," Cassian said.

"I heard a man who helped build the machine that can kill half the city."

Cyrus glanced over his shoulder.