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"Get the hell out of my head."
Silas's voice didn't sound like a thought. It sounded like a hand around my throat.
I couldn't breathe. I mean, I don't have lungs in here, but suddenly I couldn't think either. His mana slammed down on me like a vault door.
"Yeah, that's not how this works," I choked out. "You don't get to —"
"Who are you talking to?" Vivian snapped.
She was still on her knees where I'd left her. My threads — thin, silver, buzzing — were still wrapped around her forearm, right over that suicide contract mark. Her knife was on the floor. Her eyes were locked on Silas's face. On me.
Silas wasn't looking at her. He was looking in. At me.
"You stole from me," he said inside. Cold. Precise. Pissed. "You took my mana. You moved my hands. You think I didn't feel that?"
"I borrowed it," I shot back. "You weren't using it. You were about to get stabbed. You're welcome, by the way."
The air ripped open.
BRAAAANG. BRAAAANG. BRAAAANG.
Not a bell. The whole damn citadel screaming. Red light flooded the room from the windows, pulsing. Dust shook off the ceiling.
Vivian flinched. "No. No, no, no —"
"What is that?" I said.
"City-wide lockdown," Silas answered out loud, and Vivian stared because his mouth moved but the words weren't for her. "They found the breach."
Boots thundered in the hall. A fist hammered the door.
"My lord! Tyrant's Guard! Open the door! The inner ward is compromised! Assassins in the east wing!"
Vivian scrambled. She grabbed her knife. Looked at the door, then at Silas — at me — panicked calculation in her eyes.
"Open that door and we're both dead," she hissed. "They'll see me. They'll see what you did to my arm."
"Then don't open it," Silas said. His voice dropped. That dominant, flat calm that makes your skin prickle. He turned the lock with a click. Then he dragged a heavy chair and slammed it under the handle. "Nobody comes in. Nobody goes out."
"Oh, great," I muttered. "Forced proximity. Locked in a room with my murderous host and the assassin who wants to kill him. Perfect."
"You think this is a joke?" Silas's attention snapped back to me. The pressure in my head spiked. "You are a parasite. You are eating me from the inside. Give me one reason I shouldn't burn you out right now."
"Because you can't," I said. And I tried to sound braver than I felt. "You tried. You felt it, right? When you pushed? I didn't go anywhere. You need me. Or you need to figure out what I am before you do something stupid."
His laugh was short and ugly. "Bold. For something that can be erased with a thought."
"Try it," I said. "See what happens to your pretty mana flow when I yank back."
I pulled. Just a little. Just enough to make the threads around Vivian's arm flare bright.
Silas's whole body jerked. His hand flew to his chest. He sucked in a sharp breath.
Vivian's eyes went wide. "What did you just do to him?"
"Nothing," Silas gritted out through his teeth. To her. Then to me, low and furious, "Do that again and I will —"
"You'll what?" I cut in. "You need a leash for me. I get it. So put one on. But you don't get to just threaten me while I'm keeping you alive."
Silas went still. Too still.
Then something cold unfurled in my head. Not his anger. A thing. A scroll made of light and chains, hovering in the dark behind my eyes. Words burned on it.
Vivian saw his eyes glaze. "What is that? What are you doing?"
"Memory Bind," Silas said, and his mental voice was suddenly formal. Like he was reading a contract. "You want control? Fine. We bind. You get to pull my mana without me crushing you. I get to see what you are. One memory for one memory. Equal exchange. Break it, and the liar's soul gets shredded. Cost is clear. You in or not, parasite?"
My stomach dropped, even though I don't have one. "You want to see my memories?"
"I want to know what crawled into my body," he said. "You don't have a choice. Sign it or I lock you down and let the Guard break down that door and find an assassin in my bedroom. How do you think that ends for you?"
Power. That's what this was. He had it. I didn't. If the Guard found Vivian here, they'd kill her. And they'd find out Silas was compromised. And then they'd cut him open to find me.
I had no leverage. Except the fact he was scared to kill me without knowing.
"Fine," I spat. "One memory. But I pick which one."
"No. I pick," he said. "You stole from me first."
The scroll flared. Chains shot out and wrapped around... something. Around me. Around him.
"Then go," I snarled. "Take one. See if you can handle it."
The pull was instant. Like someone ripped a drawer open in my brain.
Cold. Rain. Concrete. The smell of blood and ozone. My old body on the ground, hunter gear torn open. A monster's corpse smoking next to me. And boots. Someone standing over me while I choked on my own blood.
I tried to look up. I tried to see the face.
And I saw him.
Silas. Younger. No crown. No tyrant's coat. Just a black uniform, rain dripping off his hair, looking down at me while I died. His face was blank. Not cruel. Just... watching.
"No," I whispered. Then louder, screaming inside, "No! You were there! You were there when I died!"
Silas reeled. Physically. His back hit the wall. His hand caught the edge of a mirror to stay upright.
Vivian jumped up. "What? What did you see?"
"You —" Silas's voice cracked. For the first time, he sounded shaken. "You were the hunter in the alley. Sector Nine. You died on —"
"Don't you say it!" I screamed. My threads flared wild, cutting into Vivian's skin, making her gasp. "You just watched? You just stood there and watched me bleed out?"
"I was ordered not to intervene," he said, and it sounded like an excuse even to him. "I didn't know — I didn't know it was you."
"You didn't know it was me inside you now? Or you didn't know I was a person?" My whole being was shaking. "Holy shit. Holy shit, you were there."
The alarm was still screaming. The Guard was still pounding. "My lord! Respond!"
Silas didn't answer them. He was staring at me. Or at the memory. His breathing was hard. His forehead was pressed against the cool glass of the mirror, and I could feel his pulse hammering against my awareness. Too close. Too hot.
Vivian stepped closer, careful, eyes darting between his face and the door. "Whoever you are," she said softly, to me, not him, "you need to let him answer. Or they will break in."
Silas pushed off the mirror. His hands were trembling. He straightened. Smoothed his coat. Fixed his collar like nothing had happened. Like he could put the mask back on that fast.
He looked into the mirror to check his face.
And the reflection wasn't his.
It was me. On my knees in that alley. Mouth open in a silent scream. Blood all over my throat, my hands, soaking my shirt. Eyes wide and furious and terrified. Trapped behind his face like I was drowning in glass.
Silas froze. His fingers were still on his collar. His eyes locked on mine in the mirror.
Behind us, the red alarm light cut out. Replaced by a cold white projection that burned across the far wall, cast from the citadel spire outside the window. A list. Names. Faces. A bounty board for the whole city to see.
A new name slammed to the top in black letters, with a countdown ticking underneath.
[ WANTED: SILAS VANE — TYRANT OF THE SPIRE — DEAD OR ALIVE ] [ REWARD: 100,000,000 MANA CREDITS ] [ EXECUTION COUNTDOWN: 71:59:59 ]
Vivian sucked in a breath. "That's — that's a continent-wide kill order. Silas, they just put a price on your —"
Silas didn't look at the bounty. He didn't look at her. He kept staring at my reflection screaming in blood, his thumb still hooked on his collar, his mouth curving into something that wasn't a smile.
"Now," he whispered to me, so low Vivian couldn't hear, his breath fogging the mirror between our faces, "do you still want to know what happens if you —"