Chapter 6 · The Gate Answers

"Don't touch the gate." Dorian caught my wrist before my fingers reached the black stone.

His grip locked around the oath-mark circling my skin. Heat snapped up my arm. The shard in my other hand answered with a sharp pulse.

I yanked against him. "You dragged me all the way into this cursed vault, and now you want me to stand here and admire the door?"

"I want you alive."

"That's new."

His jaw tightened. The old Northbreak vault stretched behind him, all cracked pillars and iron seals buried in the walls. The gate stood ahead of us, taller than a house, carved with lines that looked too much like veins.

Dorian kept his body between me and it.

He was close enough that his coat brushed my knuckles. Close enough for me to feel the heat coming off him, even through two layers of clothes. His breath touched my cheek when he leaned in.

"You heard your mother's warning," he said. "You know what she said about this gate."

"She said not to let you open it."

"Exactly."

"Then open it."

His eyes went cold. "You think this is funny?"

"No. I think you're hiding something. Again.