Something moved behind his eyes. Gone before I could name it.
"I cared enough to stop them from putting a bolt through your skull."
"Congratulations. Should I clap?"
"You should sign."
I stared at the case.
He opened it.
Inside lay a metal collar, thin as a band of wire, lined with tiny blue lights. A single drop of dark red fluid sat in a glass slot at the center.
My blood. His blood. A contract keyed to both.
"No," I said.
"You don't understand the offer."
"I understand collars."
"This one reconnects your power."
"And chains me to you."
"For thirty days."
"Thirty days locked inside your head?"
"A psychic link. Limited range. Limited access."
"You expect me to believe the League's favorite son is offering me freedom?"
"I'm offering you a way to survive."
"Same thing you told the council when you stood there and called me a traitor."
Julian's face went still.
There it was. The name he didn't want spoken.
I shoved against his chest. His armor gave under my palms, hard and warm. He caught both my wrists and pinned them above my head.
"Say it again," he said.
His voice had dropped.
"Traitor."
His grip tightened.
"You know what happened that day?"
"I know you watched them strip my crest."
"I watched them keep you alive."
"You stood beside Silas."
"I stood beside the council."
"You stood there while they called me Vesper the Butcher."
His mouth pulled tight.
"Your hero name was Nightshield."
"Was it?"
"You saved this city forty-three times."
"And you let them erase it."
"They erased nothing."
"You let them say I betrayed every person I protected."
"I said your name in that room."
"You said my name like I was trash."
His eyes held mine.
For the first time, the perfect golden mask cracked.
"I said your name because if I called you Nightshield, they would have executed you before sunrise."
My breath caught.
He leaned closer, his forehead almost touching mine.
"You want to hate me? Fine. Hate me alive."
The collar hummed inside its case.
I pulled one wrist free and slapped him.
The sound snapped through the alley.
Julian's head turned with the force of it. He didn't release my other hand.
A red mark rose along his cheek.
"Feel better?" he asked.
"Not even close."
"Sign."
"Beg."
His gaze slid over my face. "You want me to beg?"
"I want you to admit you need me."
"I need your information."
"That's not what I said."
"Don't make this personal."
"You dragged me into a wall and put a collar on the table. You made it personal."
His thumb moved over the inside of my wrist again. My pulse jumped beneath it.
He felt that too.
Neither of us spoke for a second.
Then Julian said, "If you don't bind with me, the League hunts you until they find the part of you they can sell."
"And if I bind with you?"
"You get your shield back."
"What do you get?"
"Your secrets."
"There it is."
"I need to know who framed you."
I laughed under my breath. "You were there."
"I was lied to."
"Poor Julian. The city's perfect hero got lied to."
"Mock me later."
"No, I think I'll enjoy this now."
He took the collar from the case.
It unfolded in his hand with a soft metallic click. Tiny lights ran along its edge like a countdown.
I tried to pull away.
Julian caught my waist and turned me, forcing my back against his chest. His arm locked across my middle. The collar hovered at my throat.
His body was behind mine. Too close. His chin brushed my temple when he spoke.
"Stop fighting."
"You first."
"If I wanted to hurt you, you wouldn't still be standing."
"If you wanted to help me, you wouldn't be holding me down."
"You won't hold still."
"Because you're putting a leash on me!"
"Because you're about to lose the last chance you have."
The blue thread in my palm flickered.
Pain stabbed up my arm. The thread snapped out and struck the wall, carving a glowing line through the brick.
Julian went rigid behind me.
"You're destabilizing," he said.
"I noticed."
"Your power is burning through the restraint."
"Then take it off."
"I can't."
"Can't or won't?"
"Both."
The collar's lights turned red.
A low warning tone sounded.
Julian shifted, one hand still locked around my waist, the other lifting the collar toward my throat.
"Listen to me," he said. "Once this closes, the link starts. You may feel my thoughts. You may hear things you don't want to hear."
"You mean the ugly ones?"
"You have no idea."
"Try me."
His mouth stopped near my ear.
"Don't push me, Vesper."
The heat of his breath ran across my skin. My fingers curled against his arm instead of shoving it away.
I hated that my body noticed him before my brain could shut it down.
I hated that he noticed me noticing.
"You scared?" I whispered.
"Of you?"
"Of what I'll find in your head."
His silence told me more than an answer would have.
I turned my face enough to catch his eyes.
"What did you do, Julian?"
"Sign the contract."
"What did you do?"
"You want your power back or not?"
"I want the truth."
"You can't afford the truth."
"You can't afford me dead."
That stopped him.
The collar's warning tone sharpened.
Somewhere beyond the alley, sirens started up. More League patrols. More boots. More people ready to drag me away and call it justice.
Julian pressed the metal band against my throat.
"Last chance," he said.
"Go ahead. Make me beg."
"I'm not the one begging."
"Then say it. Say you need me."
His fingers tightened at my waist.
"I need you alive."
"Not enough."
"I need you bound to me."
My heart kicked hard.
"Why?"
His eyes locked on mine.
"Because someone inside the League is still hunting you, and they won't stop until they reach me."
The collar snapped shut.
Blue light tore across my vision.
I gasped. Julian's arm clamped around me as the alley dropped away beneath my feet. His thoughts crashed into mine—not words at first, just sharp flashes. A sealed courtroom. My face behind a wall of glass. Blood on his knuckles. Silas standing beside him.
Then Julian's voice sounded inside my skull.
*Don't let her see what happened after the verdict.*
I went still.
"I heard that," I said.
Julian's breath caught against my hair.
"You heard nothing."
*She can hear me.*
His thought came clear this time.
I twisted in his arms. "You liar."
"Get out of my head."
"How?"
"You don't know how to control it?"
"You put the collar on me!"
The link pulsed between us. His fear brushed against mine. Real fear. Not the polished kind he wore for cameras.
I shoved him back.
He released me, but only because the alley door exploded inward.
A figure in a black mask stepped through the smoke, one hand gripping a narrow pistol. The weapon lifted toward Julian's chest.
Julian moved in front of me.
"Stay behind me," he ordered.
"Try ordering me again."
The masked stranger cocked the pistol.
Through the link, Julian's thought slammed into mine.
*Vesper, if that gun fires, the collar will—*
"Tell me what the collar will do," I said.
The stranger's finger settled against the trigger.
Julian turned his head just enough to meet my eyes.
"Don't move. If you move, the contract—"
The masked figure smiled behind the muzzle and whispered, "Let's see which one of you breaks first—"