"Get your hands off him!" Ayla Vane drove her elbow into the enforcer's throat and felt his grip loosen.
She tore free, grabbed the bleeding man's coat, and dragged him behind the cracked service wall before the enforcer could recover.
"You hit like a debt collector," the man rasped.
"I am a debt collector." Ayla pressed her palm against his chest. "And you are worth twelve thousand crowns alive. Try not to die before I collect."
His eyes opened.
That was her first mistake.
His irises were almost black, except for the thin silver ring burning around each pupil. Soul-fire. Illegal, unstable, and expensive enough to make three city families start a war.
The corridor shook as something slammed into the metal door behind them.
"Who sent you?" Ayla demanded.
"You first."
"Cute." She shoved two fingers under his jaw and checked his pulse. It stuttered beneath her touch. "You have six armed people hunting you, a hole in your side, and a debt-mark crawling up your throat. You don't get to be cute."
He caught her wrist.
His hand was hot. Not warm. Hot enough that the leather of her glove tightened against her skin.
"Take this debt," he said, his voice rough against her ear, "and the whole city dies with me."
Ayla stared at his fingers around her wrist.
Then she looked at the silver mark under his collar.
It pulsed once.
Her soul-mark answered.
A thin blue line lit across the back of her hand.
"Let go," she said.
"You saw it."
"I said let go."
"You know what it means."
"It means you are holding the wrist of the woman who can break every bone in your hand without touching you."
He smiled, but the smile slipped when another impact buckled the door.
"Then do it."
Ayla twisted her wrist hard. His grip did not move.
That was her second mistake.
The man was injured. Bleeding through his shirt. Barely standing. Yet his fingers locked around her like iron bands.
"Name," she said.
"Kade."
"Last name."
"Rook."
The door burst inward.
Three enforcers pushed through the smoke, their gray coats marked with the gold triangle of Meridian Power. The company owned half the city's energy towers, the other half's judges, and every legal soul-debt office that mattered.
The one in front raised a shock rifle.
"Step away from the vessel," he ordered. "Ayla Vane, by authority of Meridian Power, you are interfering with a sealed recovery order. Release him and kneel."
Ayla glanced at Kade. "Vessel?"
"You work for rich people and still ask stupid questions?" Kade muttered.
"I am going to charge you extra for that."
The rifle hummed.
"Last warning," the enforcer said. "Put your hands on your head."
Ayla pulled Kade closer instead.
The movement made his shoulder strike hers. Heat bled through his coat. His breath brushed the side of her face, sharp with blood and metal.
"You heard him," Kade said. "They want me alive."
"They want the thing in your chest alive." Ayla kept her eyes on the rifle. "That is not the same thing."
"Smart girl."
"Do not call me girl."
"Then stop standing between me and the men trying to kill us."
"You are the one bleeding on my boots."
The lead enforcer stepped over the broken door.
"Ayla, this is your final chance. Your brother's debt is still active. We can freeze his identity by sunrise. No district access. No work permit. No treatment allocation. You know what happens after that."
The threat landed cleanly.
Her brother's name was the only chain Meridian had ever managed to put around her neck.
Ayla lifted her chin. "You brought a recovery team into a restricted debt office. That makes this an illegal seizure."
"Nobody is checking paperwork in the lower wards."
"I am."
"You think your little mark makes you untouchable?"
"No. I think your gun makes you lazy."
The enforcer's mouth tightened.
Kade leaned close. "You need to run."
"You need to shut up."
"You cannot kill all three."
"I only need to kill one. The others will run."
"That is a terrible plan."
"It is the plan you get."
The lead enforcer fired.
Ayla snapped her marked hand up.
Blue light cracked across her palm. The shock bolt bent in midair and slammed into the ceiling. Sparks rained down. One enforcer screamed when the current jumped to his rifle.
The second man fired at Kade.
Kade moved faster than a wounded man had any right to move. He yanked Ayla down, turned his body, and took the edge of the bolt across his shoulder.
The smell of burned cloth filled the corridor.
"You blocked that for me?" Ayla demanded.
"I blocked it for myself. You were in the way."
"Liar."
"You noticed."
Kade shoved the nearest enforcer into the wall. The impact shook dust from the ceiling. The man's helmet split against the concrete, and he dropped.
The lead enforcer reached for a blade.
Ayla flicked two fingers.
The debt-mark on his wrist flared red.
He froze.
"You have a private debt with the city," she said. "Three unpaid extraction fees. One falsified death certificate. And you stole medication from a child's account last winter."
His face drained. "You cannot read sealed marks."
"I can read whatever people are stupid enough to carry under their skin."
She closed her fist.
The man's knees hit the floor.
Kade stared at her hand. "You do that often?"
"Only when people shoot at me."
"Good to know."
The third enforcer slammed a metal baton into Kade's ribs.
Kade grunted and folded. Ayla grabbed the attacker's coat, but the man drove her backward into the wall. Pain burst behind her shoulder. His forearm pressed beneath her jaw.
"Where is the core?" he snarled.
"Ask your prisoner."
"He is not a prisoner. He is company property."
Kade's head lifted.
Something changed in his face.
Not fear. Not anger.
Recognition.
The silver ring around his pupils widened.
"Kade," Ayla warned.
He looked at her. "Move."
"I am pinned."
"Then stop being pinned."
The enforcer tightened his arm. "Open your hand, debt hunter. I know what you can do. I know what happens if you push too hard. Your brother's soul record gets burned."
Ayla's pulse kicked.
The man smiled against her cheek. "There it is. That little panic spike. Meridian logs everything."
Kade's eyes sharpened.
"You should not have said that," he whispered.
"What?"
"Her brother's name."
The mark on his chest flashed beneath his shirt.
The corridor lights blew out.
For half a second, nobody moved.
Then a deep pulse rolled through the wall.
The enforcer holding Ayla flew backward. He hit the opposite side so hard that his boots left the floor. Kade stood in the center of the corridor, one hand pressed over his chest.
The wound in his side had stopped bleeding.
The skin around it glowed silver.
Ayla pushed off the wall. "What did you just do?"
Kade's breath came too fast. "I told you to move."
"You threw a full-grown man through concrete."
"He was annoying me."
"You are going to die."
"That too."
The silver glow spread from his chest to his throat. Thin lines appeared beneath his skin, branching like cracks in glass.
Ayla had seen soul-debts before. Old debts. Blood debts. Family contracts that passed from parent to child. She had never seen one move like that.
The mark did not sit on Kade's skin.
It was trying to get out.
"What is inside you?" she asked.
"A bad decision."
"Try again."
"No."