Page 159 of Zenith Tower

Kieran swung the fallen baton one-handed. Marrow ducked and caught it below the grip. A twist tore it free. He threw it into the channel and struck Kieran across the chest with the heel of his hand.

Kieran hit the stone beside Hale. Green-gold pain drove up my arm.

I went for Marrow before he could reach either of them again.

He caught my wrist.

I turned as Hale had taught me, but Marrow moved with the escape and closed his other hand around my upper arm. His cuff caught between our wrists and tore. The fabric fell back.

A Mark lay beneath it.

The lines were dark and drawn tight along the inside of his wrist. My palm closed over them before I could pull away.

The same current that had moved through Delphine’s damaged lines opened beneath my skin.

Heat gathered where our wrists met, then sank cold through the bones of my hand. I felt Marrow’s Mark as a pattern pulled painfully tight. Suppression had driven each line inward, and the constriction echoed through my knuckles.

The pattern could be loosened beneath my palm. A fraction more pressure at one narrow turn would knot it instead and send pain through his arm. I could force his hand open, and if I continued, the change would remain after I let go.

The power gathered against my palm. Marrow felt it. His grip faltered, and his eyes dropped to my hand.

I released him.

His Mark remained exactly as I had found it.

Marrow stared at his wrist.

Hale struck him from the side.

They went down together. Marrow’s temple glanced off the wet stone before he rolled away from Hale’s weight. Kieran dropped to one knee and trapped Marrow’s right forearm beneath his left shin, keeping his injured shoulder clear. Caspian came in from the other side, breathing shallowly, and forced Marrow’s left shoulder to the stone.

The fourth steward left the tunnel door and started toward them.

I kicked a fallen baton toward Delphine. She caught it before it reached the water and swung low. Wood struck the steward’s knee. He dropped, and she planted one boot over his wrist before bracing the baton across his throat.

“The door,” Hale said.

I ran to it. The emergency release sat beneath a metal cover beside the brace. I tore the cover open and drove the lever down.

The brace lifted slowly from its housing.

Boots struck stone in the passage behind us.

The pursuit was no longer scattered. A squad was moving together.

Marrow heard them. His cheek was pressed to the wet walkway beneath Caspian’s arm, but his mouth was free.

One call would bring them straight to us.

Hale tore a restraint cord from a fallen steward’s belt and bound Marrow’s wrists. Marrow drew breath while Hale tightened the knot.

He looked at me.

I remembered the pattern of his Mark beneath my palm and everything I had chosen not to do to it.

Marrow let the breath out without calling.

The squad reached the junction above. A steward shouted for the west passage to be checked.