Chapter 11 · The Price in His Blood

"You want me to pay his debt?" I shouted at the black glass. "Then say the price where I can hear it. Stop hiding behind my mark."

Veyra's face sharpened inside the burning relic. Blue fire crawled over her cheekbones. Behind her, Nolan hung against a metal chair, wrists tied, blood running from his split brow.

The red numbers above his head dropped.

02:58:41.

"You already know the price, Mara," Veyra said. "Your brother signed it. You witnessed it."

"I witnessed a blank contract. The amount was missing."

"The amount was you."

My palm burned. The mark Soren had forced open between us pulsed under my skin, hot enough to make my fingers lock. Across the trading floor, Soren braced one hand on the shattered remains of the first relic. His coat was torn at the shoulder. Blood had soaked through his shirt beneath it.

He still looked dangerous.

He also looked one breath away from dropping.

"Don't listen to her," he said.

His voice came rough. Low. Still an order.

I turned on him. "You don't get to tell me what to do after you took half those debts into your own body.