Chapter 25 · The Contract Has Two Masters

The silver chains hit the table and I swear I felt them before they even touched wood. Like they were already around my wrists. Already drinking.

Su Qing stood there with that scroll in her hands and I wanted to rip her throat out.

"You have one hour," she said. Not to me. To Gu Hanchuan. "After that, Elder Fang comes back with the full council. They'll drag her to the altar themselves."

Gu Hanchuan was still on his knees. The contract mark on my wrist was fading—I could see it dissolving, black ink turning to ash under my skin. He'd cut me loose. Actually cut me loose.

And now Su Qing wanted to chain me to someone worse.

"Lin Yuan already signed," Su Qing said, unrolling the scroll just enough so I could see his name in blood at the bottom. His real blood. The kind of signature that meant ownership. "All you have to do is sign here. Your blood. Your consent. Then you're his, and the council can't touch you."

"Like hell," I said.

She looked at me for the first time since she walked in. Her eyes were calm. Too calm.