Chapter 2

"Try it," I spat. "Maybe the Ledger will make you feel every cut."

His jaw tightened. Good. At least this freak contract had teeth.

Kael stood between me and the only door in the storage room. Tall. Broad. His dark coat was still caked in dust from the trial chamber. He looked like he’d walked through a war zone just to find me at the end of it.

He was the executioner. He’d come to finish the job.

Instead, the Black Ledger had chained us together.

His hand clamped around my wrist before I could even reach for the knife at my boot. His palm was hot. Mine was burning.

"Six minutes," he said. "Six minutes before the council guards return. Then they drag you to the square and finish the sentence publicly."

"And you were planning to do it privately? How considerate."

"I was planning to do it cleanly."

"You call putting a blade through my heart clean?"

"Compared to the council? Yes."

His thumb rested against my pulse. Not gentle. Not quite rough. He was checking if I was about to faint, and the fact that he cared enough to check made my skin crawl.

Or maybe it was the heat crawling up my arm.

I pulled. "Let go."

"Tell me why you were in the heir's chamber."

"Because someone sent me there."

"Who?"

"The same person who planted my knife by the body, wiped the rift residue off the real weapon, and made sure every witness saw me standing over the corpse."

His eyes narrowed. "You expect me to believe you were framed?"

"No. I expect you to use the brain under all that dramatic hair."

His fingers tightened.

Pain snapped through my wrist. A matching spike hit his hand. He released me like the bond had shocked him.

That was new.

Kael glanced at his palm. The black mark had spread another inch, curling around his thumb.

"The Ledger reacts to pain," I said. "Maybe don't hurt me unless you want to practice screaming together."

"You sound pleased."

"I'm alive. It's a nice change."

He stepped closer.

The room shrank. I could feel the heat of him through my torn jacket. He smelled of clean leather, metal, and the sharp smoke that clings to rift hunters after a breach. His face was stone, but his gaze dropped to my mouth for a fraction of a second.

I caught it.

"Looking for the lie?"

His eyes snapped back to mine. "Looking for the poison."

"You think I poisoned the heir?"

"I think you were the last person with him alive. I think your blood was on his floor. I think your rift-sigil was burned into his chest."

"My sigil doesn't burn into people."

"It did this time."

"Then somebody copied it."

"Nobody copies a Voss mark."

The name hit harder than his grip.

I shoved my shoulder into his chest. He barely moved. His hand shot up, locking my wrist above my head, pinning me against the wall. Black ink crawled over both our palms.

"Don't say my family name like you own it," I hissed.

"Your family name is why half the city wants you dead."

"And your order is why the other half is too scared to ask why."

A muscle jumped in his cheek. A crack.

I’d seen that look once before—in the trial chamber. Kael hadn't looked at the body or the witnesses. He’d looked at the council seal.

"You don't believe the charge," I said.

His grip went still.

"Careful."

"You saw the seal before the evidence. You knew this was a setup before the verdict was even spoken. Why?"

Kael’s face went dead. That was answer enough.

I twisted my wrist and drove my knee toward his thigh. He blocked it, but his balance wavered for a second. I took it. My free hand snapped to my boot, pulled the knife, and shoved the point under his ribs.

His hand closed around my throat before I could press in.

Not enough to crush. Just enough to remind me who held the power.

"Put it down," he whispered.

"You first."

"You can't kill me."

"I can make you bleed."

"And the bond will make you bleed too."

"Then we'll both have a bad afternoon."

His thumb shifted against my neck. My pulse jumped. His gaze followed the movement, and for one stupid second, neither of us moved. His breath brushed my cheek.

"You keep threatening me with a knife," he said quietly, "but you haven't stabbed me."

"Maybe I like watching you sweat."

"I don't sweat."

"You do when you're lying."

His eyes sharpened. I smiled, even with his hand on my throat. "There it is."

He twisted my wrist. The knife clattered across the floor. I kicked it away before he could reach it, sending it skidding under a metal shelf.

Kael shoved me back. The impact rattled my teeth. His forearm pinned my shoulder, his other hand locking both my wrists above my head.

The bond flared.

His breath hitched. Mine did too.

"You are out of options," he said.

"You keep saying that like you want me to prove you wrong."

"I want the truth."

"Then stop asking the council's questions. Ask your own."

"Fine." His face lowered until we were inches apart. "Why did you run from the chamber?"

"Because the guards came for me."

"Why didn't you call for help?"

"Because the first guard had my brother's blood on his gloves."

Kael stiffened. A hard blink. A pause in his breathing.

"You knew my brother?"

"No."

"That was fast."

"It was true."

"Then why did you look at the floor when I said his name?"

His hold tightened. The black line between our palms pulsed. Something in the bond tugged us closer, like a leash pulled by an invisible hand.

"Your brother disappeared three years ago," he said. "His case was closed."

"By the council."

"By evidence."

"By a report signed with your name."

Silence hit the room.

He released me. I rubbed my wrists, watching him take one step back. His expression was blank, but the color had drained from his knuckles.

"You read my file."

"I read everything I could. Your report said my brother died inside a sealed rift. No body. No witnesses. Just a council stamp and your signature."

"I didn't write that report."

"But you signed it."

"I was ordered to certify it."

"And you did."

"I was nineteen."

Too fast. Too raw.

Kael looked away first. That was the first thing he’d given me that wasn't a threat.

I bent and retrieved my knife. He could have stopped me. He didn't.

"So the great Kael Mercer takes orders," I said. "Disappointing. You look so much more dangerous when you pretend they're yours."

"Keep pushing and I will show you dangerous."

"You already did. You put me on trial in front of the whole city."

"I stopped the execution."

"You chained me to yourself."

"Because the Ledger chose you."

"No. Because you were afraid to die with me."

His gaze snapped back. Heat shot from my palm to my shoulder, slamming into his chest. Kael’s breath caught. He pressed a hand against his ribs.

I smiled. "Did that hurt?"

"Not enough."

"Liar."

The storage room door shook.

"Mercer! Open up!"

Kael looked at the door, then at me.

"If they see the bond, they take you to the vault," he said. "They'll cut the mark out of your hands and use what's left to track every rift you enter."

"You have a better offer?"

"You come with me."

"That wasn't an offer."

"No. It wasn't."

The door groaned. Metal bending.

I kept the knife pointed at him. "Where are you taking me?"

"Out of the city center."

"Why?"

"Because the rift under the eastern rail station opened six hours ago, and the council sealed the report."

My grip shifted. "How bad?"

"Three hunter teams went in. None came back."

"And you want me to walk into it?"

"I want to know why the same residue found on the heir's body is coming out of that rift."

The guard slammed into the door. The lock snapped.

Kael crossed the space in two strides and caught my chin. His glove brushed my jaw, firm but careful around the bruise.

"Thirty days," he said.

"For what?"

"Thirty days until the bond matures. At the end, it executes both of us."

I forced my chin higher. "And if we break it?"

"We die faster."

"If I kill you?"

"You die with me."

"If you kill me?"

"I die with you."

"So we're stuck."

"Until one of us finds a way out."

His thumb paused beside my mouth. One beat too long.

I stared at him. "Take your hand off me."

"Ask nicely."

"Go to hell."

"That wasn't nice."

"It was honest."

Amusement touched his mouth. It vanished before I could be sure.

The door burst inward.

Kael dragged me behind him as two guards stormed in. One raised a shock rifle. The other held a rune-etched chain.

"Mara Voss," the first guard barked. "On your knees."

"You first," I said.

Kael’s hand shot out. A dark pulse cracked across the room, slamming the rifle into the wall. The second guard swung the chain. Kael caught it, but the runes flared.

His knees hit the floor.

The bond yanked me down with him. Pain tore through my legs.

"You said your power was intact!"

"It is."

"Then use it!"

"The chain is draining me."

"You want me to feel sorry for you?"

"I want you to stop talking and move."

I saw it. The center rune was cracked, smeared with blood.

I grabbed Kael's wrist. "Give me your hand."

"Why?"

"Because you're about to lose it."

"That isn't reassuring."

"Neither are you."

I slammed our marked palms against the cracked rune.

The chain screamed. Black light exploded. The guards flew backward. Kael's power surged through my arm—freezing, then white-hot as it hit my rift-sigil.

The chain snapped.

Kael caught me around the waist before I hit the floor. His arm locked across my back, pulling me against his chest. I felt his heart hammer once beneath my cheek.

"You used my power," he said.

"You gave it to me."

"I did not."

"Then explain why it worked."

He didn't.

A wet clicking sound came from the broken wall.

We both turned.

A black claw pushed through the split stone. The guards scrambled. One ran. The other froze, clutching a bleeding shoulder.

The claw widened the crack. Stone peeled back like clay. Something too large for the opening dragged itself toward us, joints bending the wrong way.

Kael shoved me behind him.

"Stay back."

"You keep saying that like I listen."

"Mara."

The creature forced its head through. Wet ash skin. A red rift-mark pulsing in the center of its face. Three hooked claws scraped the floor, carving sparks into the stone.

Kael drew his blade.

"You can't fight that with one hand," I said.

"Watch me."

"Your power is still drained."

"Then don't get in my way."

The creature lunged.

Kael met it halfway. His blade sliced an arm, but the thing twisted faster than physics allowed. A claw snapped around his shoulder and slammed him into the wall.

Dust rained from the ceiling.

"Kael!"

He pushed off the wall, blood leaking from his mouth. "Don't use my name like you care."

"Then stop m—"