Chapter 20 · The Speaker's Deal

"You have ten seconds to open that door." Lockwood's voice echoed through the corridor outside, flat and certain. "After that, I stop asking nicely."

Kael's hand found mine in the smoke. His grip was warm, steadier than it should've been. "How many exits?"

"One." I pulled the last file from the shelf, stuffed it inside my jacket. The blood seal on the doorframe was still glowing, my mother's wards fighting the Council's override codes. "And he's standing in front of it."

"Then we go through him."

"With what?" I turned on him. "A mate bond and a decade-old recording? He's got twelve armed guards and a kill order."

Kael's mouth curved, sharp and dangerous. "He said take us alive."

"That's worse."

"No." He stepped closer. The bond hummed between us, a live current I could taste on my tongue. "That's leverage. He wants what's in those files. He wants to know what your mother told you before she died. And he wants you quiet."

The door shuddered. Metal groaned. Someone outside was cutting through the locking mechanism with a plasma torch, the kind that could slice through reinforced steel in under a minute.

"Forty seconds," Kael said. "What's the play?"