Chapter 4

Noah froze behind the workbench. One hand hovered over the black fragment we’d stolen from the dead Rift. The shard pulsed, throwing a jagged red light across his face.

Kael stepped between us. He was too close. I could feel the heat radiating off him through my sleeve, the scent of metal and cold rain clinging to his coat.

"You were about to cut him," Kael said. His voice was low. Dangerous.

"He lied to me."

"I said I needed thirty seconds!" Noah snapped. "Not that I had the whole truth sitting in my pocket."

"You told me the council erased the murder record," I snarled, trying to yank my arm back. Kael didn't move an inch.

"They did."

"You told me the fragment came from the Rift heart."

"It did."

I stopped struggling and glared at the shard. "Then why the hell does it have my family seal on it?"

Noah went silent.

That was answer enough.

I drove my elbow back into Kael’s ribs. He caught it—reflexes like a damn predator—and spun my arm behind me. My shoulder pulled tight. I gasped, pinned against him.

"Easy," he whispered near my ear.

No shouting. No wasted motion. That was how he’d executed people in the council square. Calm hands. Calm eyes. No chance to bargain. I hated that my pulse jumped anyway.

"Get off me."

"Stop trying to break bones in a room full of unstable Rift matter."

"You first."

Noah backed away, hands up. "Can we not do the flirting-murder thing right now? The fragment is reacting."

Kael’s fingers shifted against my wrist. A tiny pause. Then he released me.

I spun and shoved him square in the chest. He barely rocked back. Of course he didn't. The Black Ledger had stolen half my strength and chained the rest to him. Every time I pushed, the bond reminded me exactly who held the leash.

Kael looked down at my hand against his coat. "Finished?"

"Not even close."

"Good. Then use your head."

I snatched the fragment off the bench.

Pain punched through my palm. The red light flared, burning a mark into my skin: three hooked lines inside a broken circle. My family’s seal. The same one carved into the door of our house the night my parents died.

Kael grabbed my hand, pulling it toward him. "Drop it."

"No."

"Mara."

"You know this symbol." I shoved the shard against his chest, forcing him to look. "Say it."

"It’s a seal."

"Whose?"

"Yours."

"That isn't what I asked!" I stepped closer, my chest nearly brushing his. "Whose seal is on a Rift fragment that killed a council heir?"

"You’re assuming the fragment killed him."

"The trial record says I did."

"The trial record says a lot of things."

"You stood behind the magistrate while they read it!"

"I stood there because I was ordered to arrest you if you ran."

"And if I didn’t run?"

His gaze dropped to the black marks circling my wrist. The Ledger Bond. Thirty days until judgment. Thirty days until he was allowed to kill me.

"Then I was ordered to keep you alive," he said.

I laughed, a sharp, bitter sound. "How generous."

Noah reached for the shard. "The mark might be a route key. I can read the code if you stop waving knives and let me—"

"Read it now," I snapped.

"Not with your blood all over it!"

Kael pulled my hand closer. His thumb pressed firmly over the cut in my palm. Heat flooded from his skin into mine, and the Ledger lines around both our wrists flashed in unison.

My breath caught. He noticed.

His eyes lifted to mine, dark and searching. "Does it hurt?"

"You wish."

"I asked a question."

"I gave you an answer."

His thumb stayed there a second too long. Not gentle, but not rough. Just... charged. Then he ripped a strip from his glove and wrapped my palm tight.

"You’re bleeding on evidence," he said.

"You’re touching evidence."

"I’m stopping you from bleeding out. Try to keep up."

"I’ve survived worse men than you."

"No, you haven’t."

The words hit harder than a punch.

"I hate to interrupt whatever this is," Noah interrupted, "but the fragment just changed."

A line of light crawled across the shard, forming a map of Glasshaven. Six red points blinked along the outer districts. One pulsed directly beneath the council tower.

I leaned over the bench. "That’s not where the heir died."

"No," Noah said. "It’s where the official evidence says you were standing."

My fingers curled. The night of the murder flashed back—blood on my sleeve, guards shouting, my power vanishing. I’d been in the tower. I knew that. But I hadn’t killed him.

"Show me the record."

Noah tapped a tablet. Kael moved beside me, his shoulder pressing mine as he read.

"Time of death," Kael noted. "Twenty-three fourteen."

"I arrived at twenty-three twenty."

"According to the record."

"You were there, Kael."

"I was outside the chamber."

"You heard the alarm. You saw me enter. And you still believe I killed him?"

Kael’s face was a mask. "Belief doesn’t matter. Proof does."

"Convenient answer for a man carrying out an execution order."

"You want convenient? Fine. The council gave me a signed order, your blood was on the weapon, and three witnesses saw your power strike the heir. That’s enough to hang you in any district."

"Three witnesses who all work for the council!"

"That doesn’t make them liars."

"And the missing security feed?"

Kael paused. Just a fraction of a second.

"You knew about the missing feed," I whispered.

"I read the file."

"Before today?"

"Mara."

"Before today!"

Kael stepped in front of me, blocking the map. "You’re not going back to the tower."

"I didn’t say I was."

"You were thinking it."

"You don’t get to tell me what I’m thinking!"

"I get to tell you what keeps you alive."

He slammed his hand against the wall beside my head. He didn't touch me, but the space between us vanished. His breath brushed my cheek—clean soap and hot metal. He pinned me with a look that felt heavier than the chains.

"You walk into that tower alone," he whispered, "and they’ll put a blade through your heart before you reach the stairs."

"Then come with me."

"No."

"Scared?"

"Careful."

"That wasn’t a no because it’s dangerous. It was a no because you’re protecting them."

The muscle in his cheek jumped. I smiled. "There you are."

"You have no idea what I’m protecting."

"Your rank. Your clean hands. That little order stamped with your name."

He leaned closer, his voice a low growl. "My hands stopped being clean a long time ago."

For a heartbeat, the anger vanished. I saw it—the man beneath the enforcer. Tired. Trapped. A weapon that had forgotten how to be human.

Then the wall shook.

The fragment screamed.

Noah cursed, shoving the tablet away. The map split into twenty jagged lines. Every red point vanished except one. A message flickered in the air:

WITNESS REMOVED.

"Who was the witness?" I asked, my skin going cold.

"Give me a minute!" Noah yelled.

"You’ve got ten seconds!"

Kael drew his blade and spun toward the door. I grabbed his sleeve. "What are you doing?"

"Someone knows we have the fragment."

"You think they’re coming here?"

"I know they are."

Three hard knocks hit the metal door.

Noah went pale. "That’s not one of ours."

Kael pulled me behind him. I shoved around his shoulder. "Don’t hide me."

"I’m not hiding you. I’m keeping you out of the first line of fire."

"Same thing."

"For once, do what I say!"

The door groaned. Kael’s blade rose. The Ledger tugged between us, hot and sharp. If he was hurt, I’d feel it. If I ran, the contract would drag me back.

Forced proximity sounded romantic in trashy novels. This was just a nightmare with a deadline.

The door burst open. A bolt flew through the room.

Kael deflected it, but the impact drove him back. The Ledger flared black across his neck. Pain ripped through my chest, and I stumbled.

"Kael!"

"Stay down!"

"You’re bleeding!"

"I said stay down!"

Two masked attackers rushed in. One had a council shock-rifle. The other wore a silver glove marked with the hooked symbol from my palm.

My family seal.

I grabbed a metal rod from the floor and swung. *Crack.* The rifleman’s knee buckled. He went down screaming.

Kael moved like a ghost. One strike to the second attacker’s wrist. Another to the throat. The man hit the wall and slid down like a sack of meat.

"You could have listened," Kael panted.

"You could have asked nicely."

The first attacker fired from the floor. Kael turned too late.

I stepped into the shot.

The bolt struck my side. White heat tore through me. I gasped, my knees giving out, but Kael’s arm caught me. He hauled me against him, his body hard and hot, his mouth inches from my temple.

"Who sent you?" he demanded, his voice shaking with fury.

The attacker laughed through his mask. "The council sends its congratulations, Enforcer. You’ve done half the work for us."

Kael’s grip tightened. "Try again."

"She’ll die on day thirty anyway. Why defend her?"

I stiffened. Kael went still.

"You didn’t tell her?" the attacker sneered.

I shoved away from Kael, but his arm held me upright. "Tell me what?"

Kael’s jaw worked. "Mara—"

"Don’t use my name like that. What didn’t you tell me?"

"The order is simple," the attacker cackled. "Keep her alive for thirty days. Then execute her, whether she clears her name or not."

Silence fell over the room. Dead, heavy silence.

I looked at Kael’s hand around my waist. "Is that true?"

He didn’t answer.

That was answer enough.

I drove my fist into his chest. The Ledger punished me for it—pain flashed through my ribs—but I hit him again.

"You were going to kill me anyway?"

"Yes." The word was low. Brutal.

I slapped him. Hard. His head snapped to the side. He didn’t fight back. He didn’t even flinch.

"Say it again."

"I was ordered to execute you on the thirtieth day."

"Guilty or innocent?"

"It doesn’t matter to the order."

"It matters to me!"

"I know."

"Do you? You’ve been standing beside me, sharing my wounds, acting like we had a chance!"

His gaze dropped to my mouth for one sharp second before locking back onto my eyes.

"We do have a chance."

"At what? Dying together?"

"At finding the person who framed you."

"And then you kill me?"

"If the order stands."

I laughed, though my side was burning. "You really are the council’s favorite dog."

His expression hardened. "Careful, Mara."

"Or what? You’ll execute me early?"

"Don’t tempt me."

He said it like a warning, but his hand was still around my waist, holding me steady. His thumb pressed against my coat near the wound, careful despite the threat in his voice.

I hated that I noticed. I hated that he noticed me noticing.

"I found something!" Noah yelled.

I tore my eyes from Kael. "What?"

"The witness file. It wasn’t deleted. It was moved to a private archive under the old Voss district."

My blood chilled. "That district was destroyed."

"Not all of it. There’s a sealed route beneath the memorial tunnels."

Kael looked at the fragment. "Can you open it?"

"Maybe."

"That means no."

"It means I need the fragment intact!"

I reached for it, but Kael caught my fingers before I could touch the shard. "You're—"