Chapter 27 · He Signed the Death Order

"Get your hands off him, Mara, or the gate will take his mind."

Calder's voice rolled through the broken command hall, coming from every speaker at once.

I had one hand buried against Dorian's side. Blood soaked through my glove. Under his ribs, something hard pushed against the old scar there, moving like a hooked piece of metal trying to crawl deeper.

Dorian caught my wrist.

"Don't pull it out."

"You're bleeding around it."

"That's not the part you should worry about."

Behind us, the black ranks shifted.

No boots. No breath. Just bone scraping over stone as the buried army closed around the gate. Their empty eye sockets burned with thin red light. Every time one of them moved, Dorian's wound jerked under my fingers.

Calder laughed through the speakers.

"You heard him. Leave the shard where it is. Let the warden keep carrying the order he signed."

My grip tightened.

"What order?"

Dorian's jaw locked. "Mara."

"What order did you sign?"

"Not here."

"You dragged me into chains in front of half the city. You don't get to pick a private place for the truth."

His eyes cut toward the soldiers closing behind me.