Chapter 4

"I told you to choose. You chose badly."

"Funny. You always sound like a man who thinks he owns the answer."

His eyes locked on mine. They were hard, dark, and too close. My knees pressed against his thighs as we knelt in the ruined command room, surrounded by broken glass, smoke, and the sharp bite of gunpowder.

The seal burned between our hands.

A thin line of light crawled from his cut palm into mine. It slid beneath my skin like hot wire, raced up my arm, and snapped around my wrist. Gabriel’s cuff answered with a violent click.

He sucked in a breath.

I felt the pain hit him.

Then it came back through the blood.

My shoulders jerked. "What the hell was that?"

"The seal closing."

"You knew it would do this?"

"I knew it would hurt."

"You left out the part where it feels like my bones are being crushed."

"You didn't ask."

I shoved against his chest, but the seal held our palms together. His shirt was torn open near the ribs. Blood soaked the black fabric, warm against my knuckles. Under it, his body stayed tense and solid, refusing to give me an inch.

Outside the command room, rifles cracked.

A burst of bullets tore through the steel shutters. Gabriel twisted, dragging me down with him before the glass behind my head exploded.

His arm locked around my waist.

My cheek hit his chest. His heart hammered against my ear.

"Get off me," I snapped.

"Stop trying to stand up."

"I can stand."

"You can barely breathe."

"I can breathe just fine when you're not crushing me."

His grip tightened. His breath brushed my hair. "Keep fighting me and you'll open the seal before it's stable."

"Maybe I should."

"Then we both die."

That shut me up for half a second.

The cuffs pulsed again. Red numbers appeared across the metal, bright enough to paint his jaw in blood-colored light.

00:08:42.

My stomach dropped. "That's a countdown."

"Yes."

"To what?"

"The collar override."

"You said the seal would free me from the collar."

"It will, if we finish it."

"And if we don't?"

Gabriel looked down at me. His face was too calm for a man bleeding through his shirt.

"The collar kills you before the attackers reach this room."

I stared at him. "You put a death timer on me?"

"Your collar came with one. I didn't put it there."

"But you knew."

"I know everything inside my fortress."

"That isn't the comforting answer you think it is."

A second burst slammed into the outer wall. Dust dropped from the ceiling. Somewhere below us, men shouted over the alarm.

Gabriel shoved himself upright and pulled me with him. Our joined hands stretched between us, blood and light binding our wrists. The movement ripped his wound open. His mouth tightened, but he didn't make a sound.

I saw it anyway.

The pain had turned his face pale.

"You’re hurt," I said.

"Brilliant observation."

"If you collapse, I’m not carrying you."

"You couldn't carry me."

"I could drag you."

His mouth almost curved. Not a smile. Something sharper. "That I believe."

The countdown flickered.

00:07:56.

He pulled me toward the command table. A black metal panel had been ripped open beneath the maps. Wires sparked inside it. A small reader sat in the center, waiting for a handprint.

"Put your palm on the reader," he said.

I looked at the blood sealing our hands together. "This one?"

"Both signatures have to be read."

"You mean both owners."

His gaze hardened. "Don't use that word."

"Why? It fits the contract. You bought my family’s debt. You dragged me here. You put a collar around my neck. What do you call that?"

"Leverage."

"Captivity."

"Protection."

I laughed once. It came out ugly. "From the men shooting at us?"

"From everyone who wants the chip in your neck."

My fingers stiffened against his palm. "You still want it."

"I want access to it. There's a difference."

"Not to me."

"You want to survive? Then stop arguing over words and use your hand."

He forced our joined palms toward the reader.

I dug my heels into the floor. The blood seal flared, and pain shot from my wrist to my shoulder.

Gabriel bent over me, his face inches from mine. His breath smelled like smoke and iron.

"You have three choices," he said. "Fight me and let the collar finish its count. Trust me for ten seconds. Or shoot me and die with me."

"You forgot the fourth."

"Which is?"

"I cut off your hand and use mine."

His eyes dropped to my mouth for one dangerous beat.

"You'd have to get close enough."

My pulse jumped. I hated that he noticed.

His thumb dragged once across the inside of my wrist, right over the glowing seal. The touch was barely there, but my skin tightened around it.

"Don't touch me like that," I said.

"Like what?"

"Like you know what it does to me."

"I know exactly what it does."

The words landed harder than the bullets.

I yanked our hands toward the reader.

"Fine," I hissed. "Let's finish your damn seal."

Our palms struck the black glass together.

The reader flashed white.

Pain ripped through us.

Gabriel dropped to one knee. I went down with him, our wrists locked side by side. The light surged up our arms, crossed our shoulders, and cinched around both cuffs like a burning chain.

I screamed.

Gabriel caught my face with his free hand. His fingers were rough against my jaw.

"Look at me."

"Go to hell."

"Look at me, Elena."

"I hate you."

"Say it again."

"I hate you."

"Good. Keep talking."

The seal tightened.

My vision shook. His forehead pressed against mine. Our breath hit the same small space, fast and hot.

"Tell me what you see," he ordered.

"Your face."

"What else?"

"Blood. Smoke. Your stupid scar."

"What scar?"

"The one under your mouth. Stop talking and fix this."

"I'm trying."

"Try harder."

A sharp laugh broke from him, strained and breathless. Then the pain slammed into us again.

The cuffs closed.

Not clicked. Closed.

Metal tightened around our wrists until there was no space left between skin and steel. The red numbers vanished. A black mark spread over the center of each cuff, shaped like two halves of the same seal.

The collar at my throat gave one hard pulse.

Then it unlocked.

The metal ring dropped away and hit the floor.

For three seconds, neither of us moved.

I touched my bare neck.

Gabriel stayed on one knee, still holding my hand. His blood had stopped flowing. The cut across his palm had sealed into a dark, jagged line that matched the mark on my wrist.

"You’re free from the collar," he said.

I looked at our joined wrists. "Not from you."

"No."

He said it too quickly.

I pulled against him. The seal tugged back, sending a hot sting through both arms.

Gabriel’s jaw flexed. "Don't."

"You said it was freedom."

"From the collar."

"So I traded a chain around my neck for one around my wrist. Great deal."

"You can leave the fortress when the gates are secure."

"And can I leave you?"

His eyes went cold. "No."

The answer sat between us, blunt and ugly.

I shoved him away with my shoulder. This time, the seal let us separate by barely a foot before pulling tight again. The sudden drag caught him off balance. He grabbed the edge of the table, and I caught his arm before he hit the floor.

His weight crashed into me.

His chest pressed against mine. His mouth stopped just beside my ear.

"Careful," he breathed.

"Don't make this sound like my fault."

"You’re the one pulling me around."

"You’re the one who tied us together."

"You put your hand in my blood."

"You told me to."

"You could've fired."

I looked at him. "Maybe I should have."

For one second, his grip on my arm went still.

Then the fortress alarm changed pitch.

A voice shouted through the speakers. "East tower breach! Three vehicles inside the outer wire!"

Gabriel released me and reached for the rifle on the floor.

The seal yanked me after him.

"Move," he said.

"Where?"

"The gate controls."

"You expect me to defend your fortress now?"

"I expect you to use the access you just stole."

"I didn't steal anything."

"You want to argue while men cut through my walls?"

"I want to know what happens if I don't."

He shoved a fresh magazine into the rifle. "They take the identity chip from your neck. Then they open your skull to get it out."

That was enough.

We ran.

The seal pulled at every step, forcing us to move together. Gabriel was taller and faster, but he adjusted without being asked. His hand caught my waist when the floor tilted beneath an explosion. My fingers grabbed the back of his coat.

"Don't get used to touching me," I said.

"You're the one holding on."

"I'm stopping you from dragging me into a wall."

"Whatever helps you sleep."

"I don't sleep in cages."

"Then stop acting like prey."

We reached the control balcony above the main gate. Below us, armored trucks rammed the outer barricade. Men in gray masks poured from the back, firing toward the guards.

Gabriel pointed to the central console. "Your hand."

"Which one?"

"The sealed one."

I pressed my wrist against the glass.

The console lit up.

Maps unfolded across the screen, followed by camera feeds from the mountain road. I saw the attackers moving toward the east tower. Red markers blinked over every gate and gun position.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Close the inner gates. Lock the attackers between the first and second walls."

"And your people?"

"They know the route."

"That isn't an answer."

"Elena."

His voice cut through the gunfire.

I looked at him.

"Do it."

The command scraped against every part of me that hated being ordered around. But below us, another truck smashed into the barricade. A guard went down.

I dragged my fingers across the map.

The first gate slammed shut.

The attackers were trapped in the killing corridor.

Gabriel raised his rifle and fired through the narrow opening in the railing. One masked man dropped. Then another.

"East tower guns," he said. "Shut them down."

"Those guns are yours."

"Not anymore. Someone inside turned them on us."

I found the tower feed. The controls resisted, rejecting my access.

"It won't open."

Gabriel came behind me. His body covered my back, his chest brushing my shoulder blades every time he breathed.

"Use the blood seal."

"I'm using it."

"No. Let it read you."

"That sounds like something a man says right before stealing my mind."

His hand closed over mine on the console.

Heat spread from his palm through my wrist. The black mark on our cuffs glowed.

"You don't trust me," he said.

"Not even a little."

"Good. Trust the part of you that wants to live."

He guided my fingers across the controls.

The east tower guns swung toward the outer wire.

I froze. "Gabriel—"

"Now."

I pressed the command.

The guns opened fire.

The attackers scattered as the stone road erupted around them. Their vehicles flipped against the wall. The remaining men ran straight into Gabriel’s guards.

The fortress speakers crackled.

Then every alarm died.

For half a breath, all I heard was my own breathing and Gabriel’s behind me.

His mouth hovered near my temple.

"You just saved my fortress," he murmured.

"I saved myself."

"You saved my men."

"Don't make it sentimental."

"I wasn't going to."

His thumb moved over the seal on my wrist. The touch was slow this time.

I turned toward him. The movement brought our bodies flush. His hand stayed at my waist, firm enough to hold me, careful enough to make the choice feel like mine.

"Take your hand off me," I said.

He didn't.

"Tell me to move you," he said.

"I just did."

"No. You told me to take my hand off. That's not the same thing."

My breath caught.

The fortress speakers suddenly exploded with a deep mechanical boom.

"By order of the Capital Authority," a voice announced outside, "the Stone heiress, Elena Stone, is to be surrendered immediately. Gabriel Vance is charged with unlawful detention, armed rebellion, and theft of state property. Any resistance will be treated as an act of war."

Gabriel’s hand tightened at my waist.

I turned toward the armored vehicles gathering beyond the gate.

One black car rolled to the front of the convoy. Its door opened.

Julian Moore stepped out in a bloodless white shirt, his hair perfectly neat despite the gunfire. He looked up at the balcony and smiled like he still had the right to stand beside me.

My throat closed.

"Elena," he called. "You need to come with me. I know where your mother was last seen."

Gabriel lifted his rifle.

I caught the barrel before he could aim.

Julian’s smile widened.

"Ask him," he shouted. "Ask Gabriel what he did with the mine records—and why your mother was taken to the northern border..."

I stared at Gabriel as he lowered his eyes to mine, his blood-sealed hand still locked around my wrist.

"What did he just say?"