Chapter 37 · Kneel, Then Ask Again

"Kneel, then ask me again."

Cassian froze with one hand locked around the floodgate lever.

The red lines under his skin had crawled from his wrist to his throat. Chains rattled above us with every pulse. Beyond the sealed doors, the lower wards screamed through the pipes—people shouting, sirens wailing, water slamming against stone.

He turned his head. "You want me on my knees?"

"I want you lower than the people you rejected me in front of."

His jaw clenched.

Good. Let it hurt.

The blood circuit between us had snapped minutes ago, but I still felt its ghost beneath my ribs. Every breath he took dragged at the torn thread inside me.

The first bond had died at the harbor court. Cassian had rejected me in front of the council, the guards, and half the city. He'd called it protection. He'd called me a threat.

I called it what it was.

Public humiliation with a commander's seal stamped across it.

Cassian let go of the lever and stepped toward me. His boots scraped over the wet iron floor.

"Mara." His voice came out low and tight. "The court's sealing the lower gates one by one.