Chapter 8 · The Oath Takes a Price

Calder's knife pressed under Sera's jaw before I reached the first stair.

"One more step, Mara, and I open her throat."

Sera stood on the old north wall with her wrists tied behind her. Blood ran from her temple into one eye, but she still managed to glare at me like I was the idiot in the room.

"Don't stop for me," she called. "He already looks ugly enough without the victory face."

Calder's mouth tightened. His hand jerked against her hair.

"Keep talking," he said. "I'll give you something worth screaming about."

"Try it," Sera snapped. "I bite."

Dorian caught my arm before I could move again. His fingers closed around the inside of my elbow, hot and hard. The oath under my skin answered him with a sharp burn.

"Let go," I said.

"Not yet."

"She'll die if we wait."

"She'll die if you rush him."

I turned on him. "You dragged me through half this city because you promised you could keep people alive. Now you're hiding behind my elbow?"

His jaw flexed. His black coat was torn at the shoulder, and blood had dried along his collar. Mine wasn't doing much better.