Chapter 66 · The Name at the Top

"Is that a threat?"

Our mouths were inches apart.

"It's a fact," Cassian said.

"You love facts when they make you look innocent."

His breath caught. "I never said I was innocent."

For one second, the tower vanished around us.

His thumb pressed against my skin. Heat seeped through the ache in my ribs, replacing it with something sharper.

Want. Anger. Memory.

The first time our bond opened, he'd held me exactly like this.

Then he'd let me go in front of everyone.

I shoved him back. "If I die, the channel stays locked."

"If you tear out the seal, the core may recognize you as an override source."

"And if it doesn't?"

His jaw tightened. "Then it takes everything."

"My sister dies either way if Evelyn finishes the order."

The comm snapped to life against the console.

"Mara!" Cyrus shouted. "Guards are inside the lower access ring! Blackwater uniforms. At least twenty!"

Cassian ripped his hand from my wound and spun toward the stairwell.

"Stay here."

I caught the front of his coat. "You don't get to leave me alone with a death engine."

"I need to stop them."

"No. You need to get the broadcast open.