Chapter 2

The estate gates crashed shut behind us.

Outside, Nolan's distress code kept chirping from somewhere beyond the black iron bars. Three short notes. A pause. Three more.

My brother was still out there.

I kicked Soren's knee. "Stop the car."

"No."

"He called me. You heard him."

"I heard a signal designed to make you run straight into Calder's hands."

"You don't know that."

Soren caught my ankle before I could kick him again. His fingers closed around the leather of my boot, not my skin, but the heat of his palm still climbed through it.

"I know Calder put a forged debt under your name," he said. "I know the contract used your audit seal. I know three hunters crossed the east district before you even left the ballroom. And I know your brother is the one thing they can use to make you open every door for them."

"Then tell me where Nolan is."

His jaw tightened.

There. A crack.

I leaned forward, ignoring the ache in my ribs. "You dragged me into your car. You locked your gates. You keep saying you can protect us. So prove it. Where is he?"

"Not here."

"That isn't an answer."

"It's the only one you're getting while you're trying to claw your way back to a death trap."

I reached for the door handle.

Soren moved faster. He caught my wrist and pinned it against the seat. His knee pressed between mine, locking my legs without crushing them. His face dropped close enough that his breath touched my cheek.

"Don't," he said.

My pulse jumped. Damn him. Damn my body for noticing the distance between us when my brother could be bleeding in an alley.

"Get off me."

"Stop reaching for the door."

"Make me."

His eyes dropped to my mouth for half a second.

That tiny pause cost him.

I drove my free hand into his throat.

Soren released me with a rough cough. I shoved the door open and jumped before the car fully stopped.

My boots hit black stone. Pain shot up my legs, but I kept moving.

The estate rose around me in slabs of dark glass and iron. No guards. No visible locks. Just a wide courtyard sealed behind walls that reflected my face in broken pieces.

I hated the place already.

"Mara!" Soren barked.

I ran toward the nearest gate.

A silver line glowed under the stone. Wardwork. Expensive, old, and layered with a debt signature I didn't recognize.

Good.

If there was a ward, there was a seam.

I pulled the broken token from my pocket. It was the only thing left from my old audit kit, a flat piece of black metal split through the center. My name had been stamped on one side years ago. The other side still carried a trace of my professional seal.

I shoved the edge into the silver line.

The ward screamed.

Not like an alarm. Like a person.

Heat ripped through my fingers. I bit down hard and twisted the token.

"What the hell are you doing?" Soren shouted.

"Leaving."

"That isn't an exit."

"It will be."

"Quinn, take your hand off it."

I smiled through clenched teeth. "You should've mentioned that before kidnapping me."

The silver line split.

For one perfect second, the gate loosened.

Then the ward kicked back.

Fire raced up my arm. My knees buckled. The token snapped in half, and a black mark burst across my palm.

Soren reached me before I hit the ground.

He caught my waist and dragged me against his chest. His arm locked around me, hard enough to hold me upright. Heat poured from his body into my back while the burned mark on my hand pulsed like a second heart.

"Let go," I gasped.

"You triggered the estate's blood ward."

"I noticed."

"You're not funny."

"And you're not charming. We all have problems."

He grabbed my wrist and turned my palm toward the light. The black mark had already spread to my fingers.

His expression changed.

Not fear. Worse.

Recognition.

"What is it?" I demanded.

"A backlash."

"I know what a backlash is. I mean what did it mark?"

"You."

"That's not helpful."

The mark flared.

Soren swore and pressed his thumb into the center of it. A red line flashed beneath his skin, running from his palm to his elbow.

Then the fire left my hand.

It tore into him instead.

Soren's shoulders jerked. His grip tightened around my waist, pulling me flush against him. His breath hit my hair, sharp and uneven.

"Soren."

"Don't say my name like you care."

"I don't. I'm checking whether you can still stand."

"Liar."

He lifted his arm. The black mark had crossed into his skin, burning a crooked path along his veins.

I stared at it. "You took it."

"I redirected it."

"Why?"

His eyes cut to mine. We were too close. My hand was still trapped between our bodies. I could feel his heartbeat through his shirt, fast and heavy.

"Because if it finished on you," he said, "the ward would've opened your debt signature to every hunter in the district."

"And now?"

"Now it knows me."

"You sound worried."

"I'm annoyed."

"Your arm is smoking."

"Still annoyed."

A sharp bell rang from the far wall.

Soren released me and turned.

Three red marks appeared across the black glass. One near the east road. One above the roofline. One at the service entrance.

Hunter seals.

They burned brighter with every second.

"How long?" I asked.

"Less than five minutes."

"Until they get here?"

"Until they finish closing the estate around us."

"You said this place was safe."

"It is."

"Three hunters are carving through your walls."

"They haven't gotten through."

"That is your defense?"

"It's a good one."

He caught my elbow and pulled me toward the main doors.

I jerked back. "No."

"Move."

"I'm not going inside until you tell me where Nolan is."

"You want the truth? Fine. I don't know his exact location."

The words hit harder than the ward had.

"You dragged me here without knowing where my brother is?"

"I know who is hunting him."

"That isn't enough."

"It is if you want him alive."

I shoved him. The motion barely moved him, but his eyes dropped to my hands on his chest. My palms flattened against warm fabric. The muscles beneath it tightened.

"You don't get to turn my brother into leverage," I said.

"Calder already did. I'm the one keeping the leverage out of his hands."

"You could've let me go."

"And watch you walk into a city sweep wearing a contract that tells every debt officer to arrest you?"

"I can clear my name."

"You can't even clear your own seal."

That landed.

His voice went lower. "Calder used your audit access. The forged entries carry your correction marks. By morning, the Bureau will call you the thief who drained the occult finance district. Your fiancé will stand in front of a board and swear he tried to stop you."

"Ex-fiancé."

"Already?"

"He broke the engagement in front of half the city. I think the title expired."

Soren's mouth twitched. Not a smile. Something meaner.

"Good," he said. "One less man you need to trust."

"Don't sound pleased."

"I'm not pleased. I'm interested."

"In what?"

He stepped closer.

The back of my legs hit the stone bench behind me. Soren planted one hand beside my hip, boxing me in without touching my waist this time. His face was close. His injured arm hung between us, the black mark glowing under his rolled sleeve.

"In why Calder needed your name," he said. "In why your brother's distress code came from the old district. And in why a ward built by my house recognized you before you touched it."

My breath caught.

"Your house?"

"You heard me."

"You knew my family?"

"I know every family with a debt in this city."

"That wasn't what I asked."

His fingers pressed into the stone beside my hip. "You ask too many questions for someone who keeps secrets in her pockets."

I looked down at my broken token.

He noticed.

Of course he did.

"That's mine," I said.

"It was yours."

"Give it back."

"Tell me what it is."

"No."

"Then no."

The hunter seals flashed again. This time, the glass beneath our feet vibrated.

Soren straightened. "Inside. Now."

I stepped around him. "You're not ordering me around."

"I am."

"Try it and see what happens."

"You already tried to break my ward. I know exactly what happens."

He caught my hand as I passed.

His fingers slid around my wrist, right over the fading burn. The contact was careful now. Still firm. Still impossible to ignore.

"If you leave this estate," he said, "the contract will finish locking onto you. Calder won't need a courtroom. He'll only need your blood."

"And if I stay?"

"You stay under my protection."

"That sounds like a prettier word for prisoner."

"Call it what you want."

"I call it kidnapping."

"Then stop fighting me and make the accusation convincing."

I yanked my hand free. "You really think you can keep me here?"

"I don't think. I know."

The certainty in his voice made my stomach tighten.

I hated that he had the power to back it up.

I hated more that part of me wanted to see how far he'd go.

The main doors slammed open behind him. A strip of darkness waited inside, lined with black glass and locked doors.

Soren pointed toward it. "Choose. Walk in with me, or walk out and let Calder's hunters collect you."

"And Nolan?"

"Find the original ledger. Then I can trace him."

"Where?"

"Somewhere Calder thought you would never look."

"That means nothing."

"It means you need me."

I stepped closer until my coat brushed his. "Don't confuse need with surrender."

His gaze held mine. "I won't."

For one breath, neither of us moved.

Then a red line split the wall above us.

Soren grabbed my waist and pulled me inside as something struck the outer gate. The impact shook the floor. His body covered mine, one hand braced beside my head, his mouth close to my ear.

"You still want to leave?" he murmured.

"Yes."

"Good. Keep wanting it."

He released me and crossed to a steel table near the stairs.

The broken token lay there.

I hadn't seen him take it.

"Give it back," I said.

Soren picked up one half between two fingers. "Veyra Morn stamped this."

My blood ran cold.

"You know that name?"

"Everyone who survives the debt district knows that name."

"What does she want with Nolan?"

He turned the token over.

A thin black seal crawled out from the crack. It spread across the metal in branching lines, then climbed over his fingers without burning him.

Soren's face went still.

The seal formed a single sentence.

NOLAN QUINN — NEXT WITNESS TO BE ERASED.

I stepped toward him. "What does that mean?"

He didn't answer.

The token pulsed once in his hand, and somewhere beyond the sealed walls, Nolan's distress code stopped.

I grabbed Soren's coat. "Tell me where my brother is—"