Chapter 59 · The Lie He Had to Tell

"Mara, don't let go!" Cassian's hand locked around mine as the maintenance shaft tore loose beneath our feet.

Metal shrieked.

Black water slammed into my knees, then my waist. Across the flooded platform, Sera slid toward the open hatch, her fingers scraping uselessly over the metal.

"Sera!" I lunged.

Cassian caught the back of my coat and hauled me into his chest. "You'll go over with her."

"Then move!"

He dragged me against him just as Cyrus dropped flat and caught Sera's wrist. The shaft tilted hard. My shoulder smashed into Cassian's ribs. His breath burned against my ear.

"Pull her up!" I shouted.

"I'm trying!" Cyrus yelled. "The gate controls are dead!"

A red warning strip flashed above us.

UPPER GATES SEALED.

Of course they were. The council had locked the upper city tight and left us inside the drowning bones of Blackwater Harbor.

Cassian shoved his forearm through a broken rail. "Cyrus, use the manual release."

"It's on the other side of the shaft!"

"Then swim."

"With what? My third arm?"

Another wave crashed through the hatch.

Sera vanished beneath it.

I kicked free of Cassian and dove.

His fingers clamped around my wrist before I reached her.