Chapter 36 · Ten Minutes to Drown

"Pull your hand back!"

Cassian's forearm slammed across my ribs and knocked me into the vibrating iron console.

"Get off me!" I shoved both hands against his chest. The bronze command seal burned cold fire into my palm. "The console's locked onto my skin. Look at the glass!"

Beneath the cracked lens, my bloody handprint glowed electric blue. Steam hissed from the seams. Sirens screamed through the upper gallery.

Then black water exploded through the drainage grates behind us.

"Mara, move!" Cassian grabbed my shoulder and dragged me toward the open floor hatch.

"Don't tell me what to do—not after what you did on that stage!"

"We have to reach the lower core!" he shouted over the machinery. His fingers dug into my jacket. "The primary engine is rerouting the whole flood into Ward Nine!"

"And who authorized that?" I shoved the seal in his face. "Your insignia is stamped on the intake valve, Commander!"

"You know Evelyn forged it!"

Cassian kicked the maintenance grate aside.

A vertical shaft yawned beneath us, packed with black, churning water.

"Down. Now!" he yelled. "Before the pressure locks the shaft!"

He dropped first. His boots hit the reservoir below with a brutal splash.