Chapter 61 · The Living-Gate

"That mark isn't mine."

Cassian's answer slammed through the core chamber harder than the alarms.

On the wall of blue water-light, the prisoners' collars flashed one after another.

Every metal ring carried his command seal.

Men. Women. A boy who looked barely old enough to shave.

All trapped beneath the lower wards.

All wearing Cassian's name around their throats.

I still had his wrist in my hand. His skin burned against my palm, hot from the pain he'd dragged out of me. His pulse kicked under my fingers.

"Your seal is on every collar," I said. "Try that again."

Cassian stared at the projection. Blood slipped from the corner of his mouth and struck the white floor.

"I said it isn't mine."

"Then whose is it?"

"I don't know."

I shoved him into the curved metal wall.

His shoulders hit with a hard clang. The chamber answered with a deep, wet thump, like something huge had rolled over in the dark beneath us.

"You don't know?" I snapped. "You wear the command badge. You control the floodgates. Your seal locks the lower wards. And now you're standing here telling me you don't know?"

"Mara." Cyrus grabbed my elbow.