Chapter 7 · The Break Price

The broker's shop doesn't look like much.

Basement apartment in Chinatown, red door with peeling paint, and a smell like burnt hair mixed with something sweet. Kade stops me at the threshold. His hand's on my arm, not pulling, just holding.

"Last chance," he says. "We walk away right now, no one has to know."

I shake him off. "You said she could break it."

"I said she knows how. I didn't say you'd want to pay."

The door swings open before I can answer. Woman standing there, maybe fifty, maybe five hundred. Hard to tell. She's got gray streaks in her black hair and eyes that don't blink enough. She looks at Kade first, then at me. Her mouth does something that might be a smile.

"The bonded pair," she says. "Come in. Don't touch anything."

Inside smells worse. Herbs hanging from the ceiling, jars with things floating in them I don't want to identify. There's a table in the center, scarred wood, and two chairs. She gestures at them like we're here for tea.

Kade doesn't sit. I do.

"You're Lena Cross," the broker says. Not a question. She's studying me like I'm one of her jars. "Human.