"Give me the ring, Mara."
Cassian's hand closed around my wrist before I could step over his command seal.
The cracked tide ring lay at his boots, glowing with the mark he'd carved out of our bond in front of half the harbor. Alarms screamed through the tower. Red emergency lights flashed across his hard face.
I looked at his fingers on me. "You rejected me in front of the council, locked down the docks, and now you want me to hand over the only proof that your seal is on a flood order?"
"I want you alive long enough to answer questions."
"Try asking without touching me."
His grip tightened.
Not enough to bruise. Enough to remind me he could.
Cassian Rook controlled every gate, guard, and boat in Blackwater Harbor. I had a knife, a cracked ring, and a reputation for hearing disasters five minutes before they happened.
Right now, he had the doors.
I had the truth.
"Let go," I said.
"Not until you tell me where you got this."
"You watched me tear it off."
"I watched you steal it from the ceremony chamber."
"It was mine."
"It was evidence."
"Then stop calling it theft."
His gray eyes dropped to my mouth.
Half a second.
Then his face went cold again, like he hadn't just looked at me the way he used to before cutting our bond in front of the council.
"You don't get to lecture me about ownership," he said. "Not after you ran with a sealed command in your pocket."
My pulse kicked. "You searched me?"
"Your coat was empty when my guards caught you."
"So you searched the guards?"
"Mara."
"What? Did you find my terrible secret? A second knife? A hidden apology?"
His jaw tightened. "Where's the floodgate log?"
There it was.
The real reason he hadn't thrown me into a cell.
He needed the log.
I needed the ring.
Neither of us could get what we wanted without the other.
A deep boom rolled under the tower. The floor jumped. Metal shrieked somewhere below us.
Cassian released my wrist and reached for the ring.
I kicked his knee.
He caught my ankle before my boot connected. One sharp yank knocked me off balance. His forearm slammed across my chest and pinned me against the iron frame behind me.
The ring stopped inches from his hand.
"Do that again," he said, his mouth close to my ear, "and I'll carry you to the tower."
I smiled without warmth. "You already planned to."
"You're making it easy."
"You're blushing."
His eyes narrowed. "I'm not."
"Your ears are."
"Mara."
"What? You're the great commander. Surely you can survive one woman noticing your face."
His arm pressed harder against my chest. His coat scraped my throat. Heat poured off him through my thin shirt, and the rejected bond pulled tight beneath my ribs.
He felt me react.
His eyes dropped to the pale-blue mark under my collarbone.
"Does it hurt?"
The question came out rough. Too rough.
I shoved at his chest. "You don't get to care now."
His hand moved before I could turn away.
Two fingers brushed the edge of the mark.
Heat snapped through me.
My breath caught.
So did his.
For one stupid second, we were trapped in the same breath. His fingers rested on my skin. His mouth was close enough to make every lie between us dangerous.
His thumb shifted a fraction.
My whole body went still.
Then I drove my knee between us.
Cassian swore and stumbled back.
I snatched the ring from the floor.
"You really should stop grabbing women who carry knives," I said.
"You really should stop stabbing commanders."
"I haven't stabbed you yet."
"That supposed to make me feel better?"
"No."
I backed toward the stairwell, the ring clenched in my fist. Jagged metal bit into my palm. Cassian's command seal pulsed inside the crack, bright enough to paint the blood on my knuckles blue.
His eyes locked on it.
"Don't move."
"You first."
He touched two fingers to the comm at his throat. "Seal the harbor. No boats leave. No guards enter the east stairwell."
I stared at him. "You just trapped everyone in the lower wards."
"I trapped you."
"The alarms are still going."
"The lower gates can hold."
"For how long?"
He didn't answer fast enough.
That was answer enough.
I lunged for the stairs.
A steel door slammed shut in front of me. Bolts dropped inside the wall with three heavy clanks.
I spun around. "You locked the tower?"
"Yes."
"You can't lock me in here."
"I can lock anyone in here. I'm the commander."
"And I'm the woman who can tell you which gate breaks first."
"Then tell me."
"Open the door."
"No."
"Hand over the log."
"No."
"Get out of my way."
"Still no."
He came toward me, slow and certain.
I hated that he knew exactly how intimidating he was. Tall. Armed. Blood drying across one knuckle from the ceremony. His rejection still burned on my skin, and he wore his control like another uniform.
I lifted the ring between us. "This command seal is inside the crack. Why?"
"I don't know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I expect you to stop pretending you understand what you're holding."
"I understand enough. Your seal was carved into a tide ring that belonged to my family. Then you used the same seal to order the east floodgates open."
"I didn't issue that order."
The ring pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
A thin blue line crawled from the crack and wrapped around my bleeding palm.
Cassian stopped moving.
"Mara. Put it down."
"Why?"
"Because that seal isn't responding to me."
The tower shook again. Below us, something massive groaned against the locked gates.
I looked at the light winding over my skin. "Then who is it responding to?"
Cassian's face changed.
Not fear.
Recognition.
His hand reached for me. "Mara, don't—"
The ring flared, and a voice rose from inside the crack—his voice, but older, colder, saying my name before the tower—