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Mira didn't move.
Kade could feel her eyes on him like she was trying to peel his skin back and see what was underneath. The room was too quiet now. The other guards had left maybe two minutes ago. Two minutes felt like an hour when someone who could end you was standing three feet away with her hand near her blade.
He kept his breathing steady. Tried to, anyway. The chair dug into his spine and his wrists were still locked in the cuffs behind him. The mark on his forearm was barely a smudge now. He'd looked. It should've been burning black, carving deeper with every second. Instead it looked like someone had started to write on him with charcoal and then smeared it halfway off.
"So," Mira said. Her voice was flat. "You want to tell me what that was?"
Kade met her gaze. "I don't know."
"Try again."
"I don't." He leaned forward as much as the cuffs would let him. "You think I wanted that thing to fail? You think I'm sitting here thinking this is great for me?"
She didn't blink. "The mark doesn't just fade. It's runic enforcement. It burns into bone if it has to. I've seen it work on guys twice your size who had actual illegal wards sewn into their ribs. It doesn't stop."
"Yeah, well." Kade's mouth was dry. "Guess today's different."
Mira took a step closer. The leather of her uniform creaked. She wasn't tall, maybe average, but the way she carried herself made the room feel smaller. "Different how? You carrying something? A counterglyph? Null charm?"
"If I had one of those, I wouldn't be sitting in this chair."
"Maybe you activated it late. Maybe you were waiting to see if the charge would stick first."
Kade laughed. It came out bitter. "Yeah. That's me. Criminal mastermind. I work in a copy house and my boots have holes in them, but sure, I've got black-market rune tech."
Her jaw tightened. For a second he thought she was going to hit him. Instead she circled around behind his chair. He heard her boots on the stone floor. Felt the air shift.
"Don't move," she said.
Her hands were on his shoulders. Not rough. Just firm enough to keep him still while she looked at the back of his neck, his collar, the seams of his shirt. She was checking for wards. He knew the drill. Every street kid in Ashgate knew what a ward search felt like.
Her fingers brushed the edge of his sleeve. He flinched.
"Easy," she muttered.
She pulled the fabric up. Checked his forearm. The mark was still there, faint and wrong. She ran her thumb over it. Her skin was warmer than he expected. He felt the touch all the way up to his shoulder and hated that he noticed.
"It's still active," she said quietly. "Barely. But it's there."
"So what does that mean?"
"It means you're not off the list." She let go and stepped back around to face him. "It also means something interfered. Something strong enough to drain a tower-issued enforcement mark."
Kade said nothing.
Mira crossed her arms. "The senior officer's going to bring a rune-seer when he comes back. They'll scan you head to toe. If you're carrying anything, they'll find it. If it's inside you, they'll find that too."
"Great."
"If you cooperate now, I can maybe keep this from getting worse."
He looked up at her. She wasn't lying. He could tell. She actually thought she could help. That was almost funny.
"I didn't sabotage the ward," Kade said. "I copied glyphs. That's it. I don't know why the mark failed. I don't know what's happening. And when your rune-seer shows up, they're not going to find anything because there's nothing to find."
She stared at him. He stared back.
The door rattled.
Mira's hand went to her sword hilt. Instinct. The door didn't open. Someone was testing the lock from the outside.
"Stay quiet," she said.
Kade's pulse kicked up. "That's not your senior officer."
"No."
The lock clicked. Not picked. Overridden. Someone had a command glyph. The door swung open and two men stepped in. Neither of them wore guard colors. One was tall, wire-thin, with a blade on his hip that looked too well-made for street work. The other was stockier, older, and his coat had a guild sigil stitched near the collar. Ashgate Reclamation.
Bounty crew.
Mira didn't draw. But her stance shifted. "This is a secured holding room. You don't have clearance."
The thin one smiled. "We've got a contract. Kade Riven. Wanted for ward sabotage, citywide damage, and about six other things your tower just added an hour ago."
"He's in custody," Mira said. "You can't pull him."
"We can if the contract's been escalated." The older one held up a slip of parchment. It had a wax seal. Black. "Tower authorization. Signed this morning. He's ours."
Kade's stomach dropped. They weren't here to arrest him. They were here to collect.
Mira didn't move. "Let me see that."
The older one stepped forward. Mira took the parchment. Her eyes scanned it fast. Her face didn't change but Kade saw her grip tighten on the edge of the paper.
"This is a kill contract," she said.
"Retrieval," the thin one corrected. "Dead or alive. We prefer alive. Better payout. But if he resists..." He shrugged.
Mira's voice went cold. "He's unarmed and cuffed."
"Then it'll be easy."
She stepped between them and the chair. "No."
The thin one sighed. "Guard Voss. We're not here to make this ugly. Just hand him over."
"I said no."
The older one's hand drifted toward his belt. "You're one guard. You really want to do this?"
Kade's chest felt tight. The black core was still there. He could feel it now, humming faint and low under his ribs. It wasn't doing anything. Just sitting there. Waiting.
Mira drew her sword.
It was fast. Clean. The blade came up in a low guard and the room's temperature seemed to drop five degrees. The two men stopped moving.
"You're making a mistake," the thin one said.
"Maybe." Mira's voice didn't shake. "But you're leaving."
The older one swore under his breath. He looked at Kade. Then back at Mira. "You know what this is going to cost you?"
"Out."
They left. Slowly. The thin one gave Kade one last look before the door shut. It wasn't a friendly look.
Mira didn't lower her sword until the lock clicked again. Then she turned around.
Kade stared at her. "Why'd you do that?"
"I don't know," she said.
"You just torched your career for a guy you think is guilty."
"I think you're guilty of something." She sheathed the blade. "I also think someone's trying to bury you before anyone asks the right questions."
"Like what?"
"Like why a ward collapse gets blamed on a copyist when there were twelve senior enchanters working that site. Like why your name's the only one on the incident log. Like why a bounty crew shows up with a kill contract an hour after you get detained."
Kade's throat was tight. "So what now?"
Mira pulled a key ring off her belt. She walked behind him and unlocked the cuffs. His wrists ached when they came free.
"Now you run," she said.
He stood up. His legs were shaky. "You're letting me go?"
"I'm giving you a head start." She stepped back and her hand went to her sword again. Not drawing. Just resting there. "I'm going to report that you overpowered me. Took my key ring. I'll have bruises by the time the senior officer gets back."
"Why?"
"Because if you stay here, you're dead. And I want to know what really happened to that ward." Her eyes were steady. "So go. Find out who set you up. Don't get caught. Don't make me regret this."
Kade looked at her. She was serious.
He could've taken her sword. She was close enough. She knew it too. He saw the flicker of calculation in her eyes, the slight tension in her shoulders. She was ready.
He bent down, picked up her key ring from where she'd set it on the floor, and tossed it back to her.
"Thanks," he said.
She caught it. "Go."
He went.
The corridor outside was empty. He didn't run. Running looked guilty. He walked fast, kept his head down, and took the first turn that led toward the back exits. His heart was hammering. The mark on his arm itched.
He hit the rain two minutes later. The street was dark and the downpour was heavy enough to blur the lamplights. He pulled his collar up and started walking.
Somewhere behind him, he heard boots. Shouts. The hunt was already starting.
He turned into an alley and pressed himself against the wall. His chest was heaving. The black core pulsed once, faint and cold, like it was reminding him it was still there.
A wanted board was nailed to the wall across from him. He could barely see it through the rain. But the new sheet on top was big. Fresh ink. His name. His face.
The bounty number at the bottom made his stomach turn.
That could buy a whole block.
He pulled away from the wall and ran.