Chapter 45 · Because I choose you

She held his gaze. "Because I choose you."

The words hit him harder than any blow.

His fingers tightened once. His eyes dropped to her mouth, then returned to hers.

"Don't say that unless you mean it," he said.

"I mean I choose the person beside me. Not the city. Not the table. Not the version of my sister that keeps writing orders in my hand."

"That's not what I heard."

"Then stop hearing what you want."

"I want you alive."

"Good. Help me stay that way."

A gate shrieked behind them.

Dax released her and drew his knife. The blade was dull gray, cut through with a thin red line. It hummed when the black mark on Mara's palm turned toward it.

"Tell me what to do," he said.

Mara faced the archive. "When I open the borrowed vows, you cut the central plate."

"Which one?"

"The plate with my name."

"There are three."

"The one that screams."

"You could have mentioned that part."

"I just did."

He moved to the center of the passage. Mara pressed her palm against the wall.

The archive woke.

Names lit up in rows. A baker. A dockworker. A guard's child.