Chapter 22 · The Woman in the Bell

"You're going to kill me."

Mara's voice came flat through the mark, no question in it. She stood three feet from Crowe's desk, warrant folded in her hand, and her eyes tracked Rowan like he was already bleeding.

"Not planning on it," Rowan said.

"You don't plan anything. You fall and the world resets."

Crowe leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled, watching them like a man betting on pit dogs. "Captain Voss. The warrant is yours. Use it or burn it. Either way, I have other work."

Mara's jaw tightened. "You said you'd give me Rowan clean. No strings."

"I said I'd give you an exit," Crowe said. "The strings are between you two. I'm just holding the door."

Rowan felt the mark pulse hot under his ribs. Mara's heartbeat kicked through it, fast and sharp, and he knew she felt his too.

"So what's it going to be?" Rowan said. "You drag me back to the gallows, or you walk out with me and we find who actually killed Sevrin's pet noble?"

"There is no pet noble," Mara said. "There's just you and a body and a city that wants blood."

"Then give them someone else's."

"Like yours?"