Chapter 38 · The Final Vessel

"Get behind me, Evelyn. Now."

Kane shoved me back just as the council cuffs snapped around his wrists.

My shoulder slammed into the sealed door. The impact knocked the breath out of me, but the black veins spreading across the floor scared me more. They crawled toward Kane, pulsing with every beat of blue-white light beneath the stone.

"You don't get to order me around after lying about the contract," I said.

His jaw locked. "This isn't the time."

"Funny. You always say that when you're hiding the part that can kill me."

Across the chamber, Oscar Venn lifted one hand.

Thin copper wires ran from his fingers to Kane's cuffs. His smile belonged in a courtroom. Clean. Polite. Empty.

"The Warden has served Obsidian Reach well," Oscar said. "But even a cage needs something inside it."

Kane yanked against the chains. Metal cracked against stone.

"Shut the core down."

Oscar laughed. "You still think you command this city?"

The floor split beneath Kane's boots.

Light punched through the crack. Kane's body jerked, and a dark line crawled up the side of his throat.

I pushed away from the door.