Chapter 16 · The Collector's Heir

"She's not going in there." Mara's got her hand on my chest, pushing me back against the rusted container wall.

"She already did," I say. The girl—Ephraim's sister, the new collector, whatever the hell she is now—walked through the engine gate ten seconds ago. The hounds went with her. "You see another option?"

"Yeah. We pull her out before she gets eaten by whatever's on the other side."

"Mara." I grab her wrist. "The hounds knelt. They didn't kneel for Ephraim. They didn't kneel for me. They knelt for her."

She jerks her hand free. "So what? We let a sixteen-year-old girl feed herself to the debt engine because some dead man's dogs liked her?"

The ledger's open in my head, pages flipping on their own. Numbers climb. Names I've never seen before stack up in cramped, furious script. Every debt in Cinderfall, maybe. Every lie, every favor, every bullet someone paid for and never collected. And at the bottom, in red ink that wasn't there five minutes ago: *Jace Vale. One death owed.*

I owe the city a death. Mine, probably.

"Jace." Mara's voice drops. "What's it saying?"

"It says I'm the insurance policy." I step past her.