Chapter 55 · The Seal or the Sister

"Let go of me, Cassian."

His hand locked around my wrist before I could reach the second restraint.

Blood leaked from the tear in his side, soaked through his shirt, and dripped onto the metal grate between our boots.

"Not until you tell me what you're about to do."

"I'm cutting Nell free."

"That link is wrapped around her spine."

"I know. She told me."

The lower engine groaned beneath our feet.

The chamber lurched. Broken pipes swung overhead like steel ribs, and water blasted through a split valve hard enough to shake the far wall.

Two of the six residents we'd pulled from the conduits clung to the exit rail. The others were still trapped above us, coughing and screaming through the rising flood.

The countdown burned red across the engine's main ring.

FORTY-TWO SECONDS.

Cassian tightened his grip.

His palm was hot against my skin. Too hot for a man bleeding that badly.

His eyes never left mine.

"If you sever the second restraint," he said, "the core will tear Nell apart before the connection breaks."

"Then I'll find another way."

"You already tried another way. The first restraint nearly crushed everyone in this chamber.