Chapter 76 · The Engine Takes Its Due

"Don't pull your hand away. Not yet."

Cassian's arm locked around my waist as the open inch beneath the main gate shuddered against my palm. Heat tore through my fingers and shot up into my shoulder.

Below us, people screamed in the dark.

Not one voice. Hundreds.

"They're trapped under the lower chamber," I said.

"I know."

"Then let go of me."

His hold tightened. His chest pressed against my back, hard and hot through our soaked clothes. The tide-mark he'd forced into my burned palm throbbed between us, sending his pain into my veins and mine into his.

"If I let go, the gate seals," he said. "And you go with it."

"You don't get to decide that."

"I do when the engine is eating your hand."

The metal beneath my palm buckled. A white line of light crawled over my skin.

I bit down on a cry and shoved harder.

The gate moved another fraction.

The screams below sharpened.

"Mara, stop."

"No."

"Your fingers are splitting."

"Then watch them split."

"I am watching." His voice cracked like a whip. "That's the problem."

His breath struck the side of my neck. He sounded furious, but his heartbeat was worse.