"Put the order down, Evelyn."
Cedric's hand closed around my wrist before the stolen document touched the war table.
The seal was one inch from the carved black iron when he yanked me back. My shoulder struck his chest. Heat pressed through his coat, hard and solid, while the paper slipped from my fingers and spun across the table.
"You knew I was here?" I snapped.
"I knew you were lying. The rest was easy."
His breath brushed my temple. Clean leather. Smoke. Something sharp beneath it, like blood on steel.
I twisted against him. "Then why let me get this far?"
"I wanted to see what you'd touch."
"Congratulations. You found a piece of paper."
"No." His fingers tightened. "I found the person who changed it."
The command room doors stood open behind us. Two guards waited outside with rifles raised, watching Cedric instead of me. They had orders to drag me out the second he lifted his badge.
He still hadn't.
That was the only reason I was breathing.
I drove my heel toward his boot. He shifted before I connected, caught my other arm, and turned me until my back hit the edge of the table. The paper lay between us. A red wax seal glimmered under the gas lamps.
"Move," I said.
"You don't give orders here."
"You brought me into your fortress as a prisoner. Don't act shocked when I look for a way out."
His eyes dropped to my mouth for half a second.
I noticed.
So did he.
His jaw locked. "You switched the border order."
"Prove it."
"The original called for a west-gate retreat. This one sends the Blackgrit artillery east."
"Maybe your clerk made a mistake."
"My clerks don't use a dead commander's seal."
I glanced at the wax. "Dead commanders can still be useful."
"Not when their names were scrubbed from the army rolls."
His thumb pressed against the inside of my wrist. The blood oath under my skin answered with a hot, vicious pulse.
I sucked in a breath.
Cedric felt it.
"There," he said quietly. "That hurt."
"Let go."
"Tell me what you changed."
"Go to hell."
The pulse struck again. White pain flashed up my arm and settled behind my ribs. I refused to bend. The oath had rules. It punished lies, but it punished more than that. Cedric had made sure I understood the worst part before he sealed it.
I could dodge. I could stay silent.
I couldn't lie cleanly.
His gaze stayed on my face. "Did you write this order?"
"No."
The answer was true. The pain eased.
"Did you steal it?"
"Yes."
His grip shifted. His knuckles brushed the inside of my sleeve. The contact was small, but my pulse jumped like a traitor.
"Why?"
"Because someone inside your fortress is sending your soldiers into a slaughterhouse."
He stared at me.
"That was true," I said. "You can stop looking pleased with yourself."
"I'm not pleased. I'm deciding whether you're the leak or the bait."
"You could ask nicely."
"I could also call the guards."
"You won't."
His mouth went flat. "You sound very sure."
"If you wanted me dead, I wouldn't be standing here."
"You were standing in front of a whole court with blood on your blade yesterday. You don't know what I want."
The reminder landed where he meant it to. Lucian's face. The broken engagement contract. The court watching me cut my former fiancé and run straight into Cedric Vale's arms because every other door had already slammed shut.
I lifted my chin. "I know what Lucian wants. That's enough for one lifetime."
Something cold moved through Cedric's expression at the name.
"You still protect him by refusing to explain yourself."
"I protect myself. Learn the difference."
A bell rang from the fortress wall.
Once.
Then twice.
Cedric released me and seized the order. The wax cracked under his thumb.
"What did you put in this?"
"Nothing."
He broke the seal.
The paper snapped open.
Black lines crawled across the page.
They weren't ink. They were thin iron runes buried in the fibers, hidden under the false order. The marks lit up one after another, crawling from the bottom edge toward the signature block.
Cedric swore and shoved the document away.
Too late.
The nearest rune burst through the paper and struck his hand.
A red line burned across his palm.
"Cedric!"
He didn't flinch. He grabbed the edge of the table with his other hand while the runes spread across the order like live wires.
The fortress shook.
Outside, metal gates slammed into place.
A voice roared over the wall speakers. "Blackgrit lockdown in progress. West gate sealed. East gate sealed. Live-fire purge begins on command confirmation."
The guards outside turned toward the corridor.
"Commander?" one shouted. "What do we do?"
Cedric looked at the paper. "Nobody touches the gates."
"The order is active!"
"I said nobody touches them."
The guard hesitated. "Sir, the countdown has started."
A brass timer above the doors began to tick.
Ten minutes.
I looked back at the document. The false order had been a trap, but not mine. The hidden runes were meant to identify whoever carried it into the command room. The first touch had marked Cedric instead.
That made no sense.
Unless the trap had been built for him.
"You didn't know about the runes," I said.
"Did you?"
"If I did, you'd be bleeding on your own floor by now."
His eyes cut to me. "That's not comforting."
"It wasn't meant to be."
He pressed his burned palm against the table. Blood slid between the carved lines.
The runes flared.
A new line appeared beneath the order.
FIRST WITNESS REQUIRED.
Then a name started burning into the paper.
Cedric grabbed my shoulder and pulled me close. His body blocked the guards' view, but his hand stayed hard around me. The heat of him seeped through my shirt. His mouth was near my ear when he spoke.
"Tell me what you did before you came in here."
"I walked through the east corridor."
The oath stayed quiet.
"Who saw you?"
"Three sentries. One was asleep."
"Names."
"I don't know them."
The oath pulsed once.
Cedric's stare sharpened. "You do know one."
"I know his face."
"Then describe him."
"Tall. Gray scarf. Scar under his left eye."
"That isn't one of mine."
"He wore your uniform."
The timer clicked down.
Nine minutes.
Cedric moved me away from the table and toward the wall map. The guards stepped aside as he passed. He didn't bother explaining. They were more afraid of him than they were of the order.
He pointed to the eastern gate. "The false retreat sends my artillery there. The rune trap locks the fortress and turns every cannon inward."
"A purge."
"If the command seal confirms, yes."
"And the seal will confirm when?"
"When the first witness is named."
"So break the paper."
"It already marked me."
"Cut off your hand."
His eyes snapped to mine.
I shrugged. "You asked for options."
"You have a strange way of helping."
"You have a strange way of keeping prisoners alive."
He leaned closer. "Don't mistake restraint for mercy."
"Don't mistake my survival for obedience."
For one tight second, neither of us moved. His hand was still on my shoulder. His thumb pressed against the spot where my oath burned under the skin. The pain faded under his touch, replaced by a low, dangerous warmth.
I hated that my body noticed.
I hated more that he noticed me noticing.
"Your oath reacts to mine," he murmured.
"That's how an oath works."
"Not this one."
"You designed it."
"I sealed it. I didn't design the blood inside you."
The runes on the table screamed.
The first name finished carving itself into the paper.
CASSIAN ROOK.
Cedric's deputy.
The command room went silent.
One of the guards whispered, "No."
Cedric released me so fast my shoulder hit the wall.
"Bring Rook here," he ordered.
The guard nearest the door didn't move. "Commander, he's at the west gate."
"Then pull him off the line."
"We can't open the gate. The purge lock is engaged."
Cedric looked at the timer.
Eight minutes.
The name on the page burned brighter. A thin red mark appeared on the back of his hand, shaped like a hooked crown.
His deputy wasn't just named.
He had been selected as the witness.
I stepped toward the table. "The trap needs him alive."
Cedric caught me around the waist before I could reach the order.
His chest struck my back. One arm locked across my ribs. His burned hand closed over my stomach, hot enough to make my breath catch.
"Don't touch it," he said.
"If I can break the mark—"
"You don't know what it will do."
"Neither do you."
"I know it wants your blood next."
The runes flashed.
A second line began writing itself beneath Cassian's name.
WITNESS TRANSFER: PENDING.
Cedric's grip tightened.
The fortress speakers crackled again.
"West gate command confirmed. Live-fire sequence armed. Target list loading."
The timer dropped to seven minutes.
Cedric's mouth brushed my ear, his voice low and brutal. "Tell me the truth, Evelyn. Did you bring this trap into my fortress, or did someone send it through you?"
I looked at the burning name of his deputy and felt the oath tighten around my heart.
Then the locked gate began counting down to the purge, and the next rune carved the first letter of my answer—