Chapter 23 · Masks Off

"Take your hand off me, Kael, or I swear I'll break it."

His fingers tightened around my wrist.

Not hard enough to crush bone. Just hard enough to remind me that he could.

The shard burned between us on the table, wrapped in a strip of torn cloth. Its pale light pulsed with our matching heartbeats. Mine. His. One rhythm. One ugly, impossible connection neither of us had asked for.

Kael stood between me and the apartment door, blocking the only exit. His coat was still torn from the tunnel. Blood darkened one sleeve. I could feel the heat of him through the thin fabric around my wrist, and that was irritating enough without the way his thumb kept resting over my pulse.

"You were about to say something," he said.

"I changed my mind."

"You don't do that."

"I do whatever I want. Remember? I used to own half this city."

"You used to make people kneel."

"And now you are doing it for me?"

His jaw flexed.

That landed. Good.

I twisted my wrist, trying to slip free. The burn on my palm flared. My knees almost gave out, but I refused to let him see it.