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"Don't move." Draven shoved me behind the iron gate as three Combine rifles fired through the market doors.
Bolts punched into the wall above my head. Stone chips cut my cheek. Draven planted his body between me and the shooters, one hand locked around the tether at my wrist.
"You call this protection?" I snapped.
"I call it keeping you alive. Stay down."
"You dragged me into a hunter cage."
"Because the city just marked you for execution."
Another volley cracked through the building. The old market shook. Crates burst apart. Someone outside screamed, then a bell began hammering from the nearest tower.
Not one bell.
All of them.
Draven's fingers tightened around the tether. The strip of dark metal between our wrists pulsed once, hot against my skin.
His face went gray.
"You're bleeding," I said.
"Not mine."
"I wasn't asking."
He glanced at the blood on my cheek, then at the rifles beyond the gate. His jaw flexed. "The east exit is sealed. The roof is watched. We have one route left."
"And let me guess. It involves you ordering me around."
"You catch on fast."
A metal door boomed behind us.
Draven pulled me closer before I could turn. My back hit his chest. His coat scraped my arms, and his breath touched the top of my ear.
"Quiet," he said.
"Take your hand off me."
"Gladly. When you stop trying to get us killed."
"You mean when I stop trying to escape."
"Same problem."
The door boomed again. A voice shouted from the other side.
"Hunter Kessler! Step away from the contaminated target!"
My stomach dropped.
Draven didn't move.
"You heard him," I whispered. "Step away. Go collect your rank."
"Shut up."
"That's the part where you say, 'Wren Ashcombe, you're under arrest.' You people love a clean little speech."
His arm stayed across my ribs. Not crushing. Just firm enough to remind me that he could stop me whenever he wanted.
"They don't know your name," he said.
"Then why did he use the word contaminated?"
Draven looked down at the tether.
The metal was glowing again.
A thin red line crawled along its surface, matching the pulse beneath my wrist. His pulse. Mine. Too close. Too fast.
"What did you do to me?" I asked.
"Nothing."
"Liar."
"I caught you with a crystal shipment. You tried to burn my hand off."
"You deserved worse."
"Probably. But I didn't make this."
The door burst inward.
Draven shoved me sideways and drew his pistol in one smooth motion. A Combine hunter stepped through the smoke with a shock-blade raised. Draven fired once. The hunter's weapon spun across the floor, and Draven kicked him back through the doorway.
"Move," he said.
"Where?"
He grabbed my hand and ran.
The tether snapped tight between us. Heat jumped up my arm. My knees nearly folded, but Draven caught me by the waist and hauled me through a narrow service hatch.
His palm stayed against my back as we squeezed into the passage. It was warm even through my shirt. Steady. Annoyingly steady.
"If you touch me again—"
"You can threaten me after we stop the twenty hunters behind us."
"I can threaten you while we run."
"Then keep talking. It means you're breathing."
We hit the end of the passage and found a steel ladder leading down.
Below us, voices echoed.
"He's in the lower tunnels!"
"Seal the drains!"
"Kessler is compromised! Repeat, Kessler is compromised!"
Draven's boots stopped on the first rung.
I crashed into him. My chest hit his back. The tether pulled tight between our wrists.
"Compromised," I said. "That sounds serious."
"Down."
"They just stripped your name from the order."
"Down, Wren."
"Did they also strip your pension?"
He turned on the ladder. In the cramped space, there was nowhere to step back. His shoulder pressed against mine. His face was inches from mine, eyes hard and bright in the red emergency light.
"If you want to live," he said, "you will stop testing me."
"And if I don't?"
His gaze dropped to my mouth for half a second.
Then it came back to my eyes.
"Then I carry you."
My breath caught before I could stop it.
I shoved two fingers into his chest. "Try it."
The rot under his skin flared.
Draven folded with a sharp grunt. His hand slipped from the ladder. His knees hit the metal rung.
The tether flashed white.
"Draven?"
He didn't answer.
Dark veins climbed from his collar toward his jaw. His pistol fell below us and clanged against the tunnel floor.
"You said I couldn't hurt you," I said.
He gripped the ladder until his knuckles whitened. "I said... stop testing it."
"You should've explained the part where you collapse."
"I was busy."
"You're always busy when you're lying."
His breath came rough. The rot had reached his throat now. He tried to pull himself down another rung and missed.
I caught his hand.
The second our palms touched, the burning stopped.
The black veins faded.
Draven went still.
So did I.
His hand was large around mine, callused and hot. He stared at our joined hands like I had pulled a knife on him.
"Let go," he said.
"You first."
"Wren."
"Your breathing stopped when I let go last time. I noticed."
His thumb shifted against my palm. A tiny movement. Almost nothing.
I felt it anyway.
"You noticed too much," he said.
"Occupational hazard. I steal things. I count exits. I watch dangerous men choke before they die."
"I'm not dying."
"Not if you keep holding my hand."
His eyes sharpened. "Don't make this sound like a choice."
"It is a choice. You need me."
"You need me more."
"The hunters outside disagree."
A siren screamed somewhere above us. The sound rolled through the tunnel, followed by a mechanical voice.
"By order of Combine Command, all gates are locked. Hunter Kessler is declared contaminated. Any civilian assisting him will be executed. The target Wren Ashcombe is to be taken alive for blood verification."
My fingers tightened around his.
"Blood verification?" I asked.
Draven pulled me down the ladder. "Don't ask questions you don't want answered."
"You don't get to decide that."
"I do while I have the gun."
"You lost the gun."
He looked down.
The pistol lay three feet below him.
I kicked it farther into the dark.
His head snapped toward me.
"That was stupid," he said.
"That was insurance."
"Against me?"
"Against the moment you decide your rank matters more than my life."
He climbed down until his boots hit the tunnel floor. Then he turned and reached for me.
I kept my grip on the ladder.
"Don't."
"You're coming down."
"I can climb."
"Your wrist is tethered to mine. If you slip, I go with you."
"Good."
His mouth tightened. "You really want to die just to prove a point?"
"No. I want you to understand that I'm not your prisoner."
He stepped closer. The tunnel was too narrow for distance. His shoulder brushed mine as he raised one hand beside my head, blocking the ladder without touching me.
"You are standing in a sealed Combine tunnel with every hunter in the city searching for you," he said. "You have no weapon, no exit, and no idea what that mark on your wrist can do. If you walk away from me, the tether kills you when it reaches its limit."
"And if I stay?"
"It keeps me alive."
"That wasn't my question."
His gaze held mine.
For one second, the alarms faded behind the sound of our breathing.
"If you stay," he said, quieter, "I can keep them from taking you."
"You mean you can keep them from killing me before you do it yourself."
"If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead."
"That line is getting old."
"It's still true."
I looked at his mouth again, this time on purpose. His breath caught. Just once.
Then I pulled my hand free.
The tether stretched.
Pain ripped from my wrist to my shoulder. Draven dropped to one knee with a strangled gasp. The red line in the metal flared, and both our hearts slammed into the same brutal rhythm.
One beat.
Two.
On the third, Draven stopped breathing.
"Damn it." I grabbed his hand again.
The pain vanished.
He sucked in air and looked up at me.
"You did that on purpose," he said.
"I tested the limit."
"You almost killed me."
"You said you weren't dying."
"I changed my mind."
"Convenient."
He rose fast, forcing me back against the tunnel wall. His hand closed around my wrist, not hard enough to bruise, but hard enough to pin the tether between us.
"Do that again," he said, "and I will cuff you to my belt."
"Touch the cuffs and lose the hand."
"You think I won't?"
"I think you won't risk letting go."
The words landed between us.
His grip loosened by a fraction.
I felt the heat of him through the space between our bodies. His coat brushed my knees. His thumb rested over my pulse, and the tether answered with another faint glow.
"You hate being right," I whispered.
"I hate that you're still alive because I need you."
"That's not the same thing."
"It is today."
A hatch opened above us.
Draven shoved me behind him and reached for the pistol. I caught his coat.
"You said the gun was gone."
"I said you kicked it farther away. I didn't say I couldn't reach it."
He moved toward the weapon, but I held on.
"What?" he snapped.
"If Command finds you with me, they won't let you explain."
"They won't let me explain anyway."
"Then don't walk into them."
"I have a command seal."
"You have a contamination mark."
"I have rank."
"You have a sickness that makes you kneel when I pull my hand away. Pick one, hunter. Your badge or me."
His stare turned cold.
"Careful."
"No. You be careful."
The hatch above slammed open. Boots hit the ladder.
"Kessler! Drop your weapon and surrender the girl!"
Draven looked toward the voice.
Then he looked at me.
The space between us tightened, even before the tether did.
"If I choose you," he said, "there's no going back."
"You never planned on going back."
"You don't know what you're saying."
"I know exactly what I'm saying. I know those people will cut me open to prove what runs in my blood. I know they'll hang you beside me if you help. And I know you're still standing between me and their rifles."
His fingers slid down my arm until they covered my hand.
"You should be afraid of me," he said.
"I am."
That stopped him.
I forced myself to meet his eyes. "I'm just more afraid of what happens if you stop touching me."
For the first time, his control cracked. His jaw tightened. His thumb pressed once against my knuckles.
Then he stepped away.
The cold hit my skin where his body had been.
Draven picked up the pistol.
"Stay behind me," he ordered.
"I hate that sentence."
"Hate it quietly."
He walked to the center of the tunnel and raised the weapon toward the ladder.
I caught his sleeve. "Draven."
"What?"
"If you point that at them, they won't call you contaminated anymore. They'll call you traitor."
"They already did."
"Then make sure they regret saying it."
His gaze flicked to my face. "You really don't know when to stop."
"You keep giving me reasons to continue."
The first hunter climbed into view, rifle aimed down.
"Hunter Kessler," the commander called. His voice carried easily through the tunnel. "Step away from the smuggler. You have five seconds to comply."
Draven raised his pistol.
The hunter above shifted his aim to my head.
Draven moved first. He stepped directly into the line of fire, blocking me with his body.
"Wren," he said without looking back, "don't trust the side I'm standing on."
I stared at him. "What does that even mean?"
"It means when I fire, run left."
"And leave you?"
"That's an order."
"Go to hell."
"Already headed there."
The commander descended one rung, silver command seal bright on his throat. Two hunters followed behind him.
"Lower the weapon, Kessler. Your pulse is unstable. The contamination has reached your nervous system."
Draven's pistol stayed level. "You don't know what reached me."
"We know the girl did."
"You don't touch her."
The commander smiled. "There he is. The famous Combine hunter, threatening his own unit over a street thief."
"I'm not a thief," I said.
Draven's hand moved behind him and found mine.
The tether flashed.
The commander stopped smiling.
His eyes dropped to our wrists.
The mark beneath my skin brightened, and an identical shape burned through the black metal around Draven's wrist. Two thin circles. One broken line joining them.
The commander climbed down another rung.
"No," he whispered.
Draven pulled me closer. "What is it?"
The commander lifted his gaze to us.
"Take your hand off her," he said.
"Give me one reason."
The commander's face changed. Fear slipped through the authority in his voice.
"Because that isn't a contamination tether. It's an old life-bond."
Every bell in the city began ringing at once.
The commander raised his seal, and red symbols burst across the tunnel walls.
"By order of the Combine," he shouted, "all hunters are authorized to kill the bonded pair. Wren Ashcombe and Draven Kessler are now the highest-priority targets in the city."
Draven's fingers locked around mine.
The tether answered with a violent pulse.
The commander stared at our matching marks and said, "Do you have any idea who you just bonded yourself to—"