Chapter 11 · The Face Behind the Badge

"Take your hand off the shard, Eli." Sera's knife pressed under his jaw before his fingers touched the blackglass splinter.

He froze with his palm inches above the metal table. The shard sat inside a ring of salt and copper wire, pulsing like it had a heartbeat.

"You put it there," he said.

"And you nearly set it on fire. Move."

"You keep saying that like I work for you."

Sera leaned closer. Her coat brushed his knee. Heat from her body cut through the cold leaking off the shard, and her breath touched the side of his face every time she spoke.

"You signed a life-linked pact with me," she said. "For the next six days, if you burn, I burn. If you run, the curse tears through both of us. So yes, Eli, you work for me."

He looked down at the knife. "That supposed to make me feel better?"

"No. It’s supposed to keep you alive."

The blackglass flashed under the wire.

Sera’s grip tightened. "Back away. Now."

Eli moved one step back. The curse under his ribs answered with a hot twist, sharp enough to buckle his knees.