Chapter 46 · The Blood That Signed the Bond

"And I have more than enough life-tide to share."

Cassian said it over the engine's scream, like he was offering me a hand instead of a piece of his life.

He knew exactly what he was putting on the table.

His life-tide was the cleanest in Blackwater Harbor. Floodgate guards trained for years to control it. If he poured it into me, the engine might stop stripping mine away.

Or it might drain him dry.

"No."

His eyes sharpened. "That wasn't a request."

"You don't get to force another bond after rejecting the first one."

"I'm not forcing you. I'm keeping you alive."

"You call that different?"

He stepped closer.

The narrow platform gave us barely a foot of space. Water rushed around our boots, black and freezing. His shirt clung to his chest, and heat rolled off him in hard waves.

When he breathed, it brushed my mouth.

His hand hit the rail beside my head.

He didn't touch me.

He didn't need to. His body blocked the only safe path back.

"You think I don't know what I did?" he asked.

"I think you know exactly what you did."

His jaw tightened. "Then listen to me.