Chapter 13 · The Price of Protection

"Don't touch the girl. She's not your debt."

My voice cut through the market before the collector's hook reached the child's throat.

The collector stopped with the black iron hook an inch from the girl's collar. Its chain dragged across the stones, scraping sparks from the street. Three civilians stood behind him, all wearing fresh debt marks that pulsed under their skin.

The girl clung to a woman's skirt. The woman had one hand over her own glowing wrist and the other wrapped around the girl's shoulders.

The collector turned his masked face toward me.

"Mara," Soren said behind my shoulder. "Move back."

"You first."

His hand closed around my elbow. Warm fingers. Hard grip. He pulled me against his chest before I could step toward the family.

"You don't get to put yourself between a collector and a contract," he said.

"Funny. That's exactly what you're doing with me."

His breath brushed my ear. "I'm keeping you alive."

"You're keeping me where you can control me. There's a difference."

The collector lifted the hook again. The chain rattled.