Chapter 53 · The Living Key

"Mara! Get back!" Cassian's shout hit me a second before the engine chain snapped around my wrist.

The metal yanked me off my feet.

I slammed into the stone floor. The chain cut through my sleeve and bit into my skin as the lower chamber lurched beneath me.

"Mara!"

"I heard you!"

Across the flooded platform, Cassian clung to the guard rail with one hand. His sword was jammed into a splitting conduit, holding back a blast of black water.

Behind him, six people floated inside the engine's glass channels.

Men. Women.

A little boy with both palms pressed flat against the fogged glass.

And my sister in the center chamber.

Black water covered her body to the neck. Copper lines ran from the restraints above her head straight into her ribs. Every pulse from the engine jerked her fingers.

"I see her!" I yelled.

"Then stop standing in the kill zone!"

"You want me to leave her?"

"I want you alive long enough to cut her loose!"

The chain cinched tighter. Pain shot up my arm and buried itself in my shoulder.

I seized the broken anchor with my free hand and pulled. The links shrieked against the stone.