Chapter 4

"Calian!" I shoved at his chest. "Get off me!"

"Stay down, Seraphina."

"You just dragged me into a blood marriage and now you're giving orders?"

His body covered mine, broad and hot beneath the cold steel of his armor. One hand locked around my waist. The other held a black dagger over my shoulder, ready for the next shot.

Another bolt screamed through the air.

Calian twisted. The dagger flashed.

The bolt split against the blade and dropped between us.

"You should be thanking me," he said.

"I should be stabbing you."

"You can try after we survive this."

The white light in my palm pulsed again. It wasn't just pain now. Something sharp crawled through my veins, searching. My fingers jerked against Calian's breastplate.

He looked down at my hand.

"What did they put on that bolt?"

"Ask your friends." I tried to pull free. His grip tightened. "Your fortress guards were the ones who brought me here."

His eyes cut toward the packed courtyard below us. Nobles, soldiers, and witnesses scattered beneath the execution platform. Marcus stood near the ruined judgment dais, one hand pressed to his bleeding shoulder. Elsa was behind him, white-faced and untouched.

Too untouched.

The crowd had broken apart, but I still saw the same faces from the trial. The same people who had watched Marcus reject me in front of the whole court. The same people who had cheered when my rank was ripped from my coat.

Now they screamed for Calian to kill me.

"The bride brought assassins!" someone shouted.

"She cursed the archduke!"

Marcus lifted his sword. Blood ran down his sleeve, but his voice carried clean across the yard.

"Seize Seraphina Valentine! The pact has failed. She attacked the northern lord!"

I laughed once. It hurt my ribs.

"That coward still knows how to point at someone else."

Calian's thumb pressed into my waist. "You know him well."

"He was my fiancé. Until he needed my family name and decided my neck was cheaper."

"You left out the part where he tried to execute you."

"We were having a complicated engagement."

A fourth bolt struck the scaffold. The wood shuddered under us.

Calian grabbed my wrist and hauled me toward the stairs. I stumbled after him, my palm burning like someone had poured molten metal into the cut.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Away from the people trying to put holes in us."

"You mean away from witnesses. Convenient."

"If I wanted you dead, I would have let the first bolt finish the job."

"If you wanted me alive, you wouldn't have put your blood in mine."

He stopped halfway down the steps.

The movement pulled me into his back. My breasts brushed his armor. His scent filled my lungs—cold iron, smoke, and something darker that made my wolf strain toward him despite every warning in my head.

Calian turned slowly.

"You invoked the proxy clause," he said. "You demanded my blood marriage in front of the crown."

"I demanded a way to live. I didn't ask you to enjoy it."

His face lowered until his mouth was close to mine. Heat slipped over my lips when he spoke.

"Don't confuse survival with freedom."

"Don't confuse a contract with ownership."

For one hard second, neither of us moved.

His hand was still around my wrist. My pulse beat against his fingers. His eyes dropped to my mouth, then rose again, colder than before.

"Keep challenging me," he murmured. "You may find out exactly what the contract allows."

"Keep threatening me, Archduke. You may find out what I do when I'm cornered."

A soldier shouted from below.

"My lord! The west gate is sealed! More shooters on the roof!"

Calian's jaw tightened. He yanked me down the last steps.

"Move."

"That wasn't an answer."

"You want one? Fine. The pact allows me to take you to my fortress, question you, and keep you alive until I know who ordered the attack."

"And if I refuse?"

"You won't."

"Try me."

He pushed open the side gate. Two of his soldiers rushed toward us, shields raised.

"Lord Calian, the carriage is ready!"

"Clear the courtyard. Nobody leaves."

Marcus reached the bottom of the dais before the soldiers blocked him. He pointed his sword at me.

"Seraphina! Tell him the truth! You planned this attack to escape judgment. You used the blood pact to seize northern protection."

I stopped.

Calian's grip slid from my wrist to the back of my neck. Not gentle. Not quite painful. A warning with fingers.

"Did you?" he asked.

"Did I what?"

"Plan the attack."

"If I had, Marcus would be dead instead of whining behind three guards."

Marcus's face twisted.

"She has always been vicious. Ask her what happened to the royal courier. Ask her why the treason orders were found in her room."

"He planted them," I snapped.

"And your sister saw you do it," Marcus said.

Elsa flinched behind him.

That tiny movement landed harder than the accusation.

I looked straight at her. "Tell him."

She pressed both hands to her mouth.

"Elsa. Tell him Marcus forged those orders."

Her eyes went to Marcus.

He gave her one sharp look.

She lowered her head.

"I saw Seraphina with the documents," she whispered.

The courtyard tilted under my feet.

"You lying little—"

Calian caught my shoulder before I lunged. His arm wrapped around my middle and dragged me back against him.

"Don't," he said near my ear.

"Let me go."

"No."

"She betrayed me."

"I noticed."

"Then let me break her teeth."

"You can do that after I decide whether you're a murderer."

The bolt wound flared.

I gasped and grabbed my palm. The white mark spread across my skin in thin branching lines. One line shot toward my wrist. Another crawled up my forearm.

Calian saw it.

"Inside the carriage. Now."

"The poison is moving."

"I know."

"You know?"

"Your blood is running through our pact. I can feel it."

His voice had changed. Less command. More strain.

I looked up at him. A muscle jumped beside his mouth.

"You can feel what happens to me?"

"Every part of it."

"Then you know this isn't ordinary poison."

"Tell me what it is."

"I don't know yet."

"You said you could trace it."

"I said nothing."

"Your face did."

He dragged me toward the black carriage waiting beneath the gatehouse. Its horses screamed and kicked against their harnesses. Calian's soldiers formed a ring around us, shields locked overhead.

I glanced back at Elsa.

She was still standing beside Marcus.

But her hand was clenched around something beneath her cloak.

A silver thread glinted between her fingers.

The mark on my palm jerked toward her.

I pulled against Calian's hold.

"Stop."

He stopped immediately.

"What?"

"The poison. It's reacting to someone."

"Who?"

I stared at Elsa.

She looked up.

For half a breath, fear cracked across her face.

Then Marcus stepped in front of her.

"Don't let her manipulate you," he called. "She'll accuse anyone to save herself."

"Move," I said.

Marcus smiled without warmth. "Still giving orders? You lost that right when the crown stripped your name."

"I didn't lose my name. I lost the protection of idiots who thought you were worth marrying."

His smile disappeared.

Calian's fingers tightened at my waist. His chest pressed against my back, his breath warm against my temple.

"You enjoy provoking him," he murmured.

"I enjoy watching him choke on the truth."

"You may not live long enough to see it."

"Then make sure you bury me somewhere expensive."

A strange sound came from him. Not a laugh. Lower. Rougher.

The soldiers around us went still.

Calian released my waist and seized my injured hand.

"Cut it."

He drew his dagger.

I jerked away. "Are you insane?"

"The poison is hiding in your blood."

"You want to cut open the hand you just married?"

"I want the signal."

"Use your own blood."

"I am."

He dragged the blade across his palm. Dark blood welled at once. Then he pressed his hand over mine.

The pact exploded between our skin.

White fire raced up my arm. I bit down on a scream. Calian's shoulders locked, but he didn't let go.

"Seraphina," he said through his teeth. "Follow it."

"It hurts."

"I know."

"You don't get to say that."

"I can feel your heart trying to tear itself apart. Follow the line."

The white branches tightened beneath my skin.

One pointed toward the carriage.

Another pulled toward the crowd.

The third reached past Calian, past Marcus, straight to Elsa.

I grabbed the silver thread under her cloak with my mind—or maybe with the pact. I saw a flash of a hidden room. A black bowl. Powdered bone. A hand pouring poison over crossbow bolts.

Elsa's hand.

My breath stopped.

"It was you," I said.

Elsa's face drained.

Marcus spun toward her. "What did you do?"

She backed away. "I didn't—"

"You put the poison on the bolts." My voice carried across the courtyard. "You weren't untouched. You were the signal."

Every soldier turned toward her.

Elsa dropped the silver thread.

Calian stepped in front of me, blocking my view of her. His body became a wall between us and the entire court.

"Get her," he ordered.

Two soldiers moved.

Elsa screamed. "Marcus told me to do it! He said the pact would kill her before she reached the north!"

Marcus went pale.

"Shut up."

"You said her blood would make him sick! You said—"

A bolt punched through Elsa's throat.

Her words broke into a wet gasp.

The soldiers looked up.

Calian shoved me behind him as a fresh volley tore into the gatehouse.

"Inside!" he roared.

He dragged me toward the carriage. I fought him for one second, staring at Elsa as she collapsed into Marcus's arms.

Marcus looked over her shoulder at me.

His lips formed two silent words.

This isn't over.

Then Calian forced me through the carriage door.

I hit the velvet seat hard. He climbed in after me, one knee between mine, one hand braced beside my head as the carriage lurched forward.

"You saw her do it," he said.

"I saw the pact show me."

"Can it show you who sent the shooter?"

"Maybe."

"Then do it."

"Ask like a man instead of a jailer."

His eyes darkened.

"You are in my carriage, wearing my blood, carrying a poison that can kill me through the pact. You don't get to set the rules."

"And you don't get to scare me into obedience."

"I'm not trying to scare you."

"You're one inch from my throat. Your hand is bleeding onto mine. What exactly are you trying to do?"

He looked at my mouth.

The carriage rocked again. My thighs pressed against his hips. His breath hitched, barely there, but I felt it.

"Find out whether the mark is spreading," he said.

"With your teeth?"

"With my senses."

"Touch me, then. Don't bite me."

His gaze dropped to the glowing pact mark below my collarbone.

"You think I need permission?"

"I think you need to hear me say no before you decide you're entitled to everything."

That stopped him.

The carriage thundered through the fortress gate. His hand rose slowly, giving me enough time to pull away.

I didn't.

His fingertips brushed the edge of the mark. Heat shot through me. My breath caught. The pact answered with another flash of white.

Calian's pupils widened.

"Seraphina."

"What?"

"The poison isn't moving toward your heart."

"Then where is it going?"

He leaned closer. His breath warmed my neck.

"Toward the mark."

"Why?"

"Because whoever made it wants the pact to open."

The carriage jolted to a stop.

Calian's hand closed around my hip. His mouth hovered over the glowing skin beneath my collarbone.

"Don't," I whispered.

"You said no biting."

"I said don't—"

His fangs grazed the pact mark as the carriage doors burst open—