Chapter 45 · The First-Order Chip

"Take your hand off me, Cassian."

His fingers closed tighter around my wrist.

Not enough to bruise. Just enough to remind me he could drag me away from the tide engine whenever he wanted.

Behind us, the engine screamed.

Blue light burst from the core chamber, bleaching the metal walls white. Then the light dropped out, leaving us in a darkness cut by the pulsing glow beneath the platform.

Every pulse hooked under my ribs and pulled.

My knees buckled.

Cassian caught me around the waist before I hit the iron grating.

"You're shaking."

"I'm being drained by a machine your people built. What gave it away?"

His jaw tightened. "Don't waste your breath on sarcasm."

"Then stop wasting mine. Let go."

He didn't.

His soaked coat pressed against my back. Heat bled through the wet fabric. Floodwater slapped around our boots, climbing toward the control bridge one inch at a time.

Across the chamber, Cyrus shoved both hands into the open panel of the tide engine.

"Mara!" he shouted. "The command's still running through the blood channel!"

"I heard him," Cassian snapped.

"Then do something!"

Cassian's grip shifted. His palm spread across my side, covering nearly half of it.