Chapter 3

"You said the wardens were three blocks behind us!" Tessa snapped.

"They were." Niko shoved a fresh power cell into the engine of his battered rig. "Then somebody called in a city team. Big difference."

Another blast hit the pavement.

The street jumped.

Tessa grabbed Cael by the collar and dragged him lower. He crashed into her, heat cutting through their coats. His breath struck her cheek, rough and fast.

"Stop lighting up," she hissed.

"Tell them to stop shooting."

"You're cracking the shield."

His silver eyes locked on hers. Light crawled through his irises.

"I'm holding it together."

"You're doing a terrible job."

"Then get off me."

"Gladly. As soon as you stop turning us into a beacon."

Three wardens rounded the corner in black armor, white tower sigils stamped across their masks. Behind them came three raiders with red bands around their arms.

Not law.

Not even pretending.

Niko swore. "Arden's people and the wardens. Cute. They hate each other, but they can still agree on killing us."

"You knew this would happen?" Tessa demanded.

"I knew somebody would show up. I didn't know the whole damn city would come."

A tower alarm shrieked overhead.

Every glass sign in the market flickered at once. The shield above the skyline flashed white. Then a jagged crack split it from one end of the city to the other.

Cael sucked in a sharp breath.

The pulse inside Tessa's chest answered him.

Pain punched through her ribs. She folded, fingers scraping the pavement.

"Tessa." Cael caught her shoulder.

"Don't touch me."

"If I let go, the lock slips."

"Then suffer quietly."

"I am suffering quietly. You're the one yelling."

"You call that quiet?"

The crack in the shield widened.

A pressure wave tore through the market. Stalls flipped. Glass shattered. People screamed and ran between the buildings.

The wardens raised their weapons.

A masked officer stepped forward. "Cael Arden! Drop your hands and kneel! The heir is under Authority claim. The girl is to be taken alive."

Tessa stared at Cael.

"Heir?"

His jaw locked. "Not now."

"You had plenty of time to mention it."

"You had plenty of time to ask."

"I asked if you were going to get me killed. You said no. That was apparently a lie."

The officer pointed his weapon at her. "Tessa Rook, move away from him. Your brother is still breathing because the Authority has chosen not to close his ward. Make this difficult, and that choice changes."

Her hands went cold.

Cael saw it. His gaze cut toward her.

"They have your brother?"

"Don't look at me like that."

"You didn't tell me."

"You didn't tell me you were a missing royal disaster. We both kept things to ourselves."

"I'm not royal."

"You have an army chasing you and an heir claim on your head. What do you call it?"

The officer lifted his weapon. "Last warning."

Niko slammed the power cell into place. "Tessa, the rig needs ten seconds!"

"You have five."

"Then make five feel like ten."

The first warden charged.

Tessa kicked the cart's broken wheel into his knees. He dropped. She drove her elbow into his mask, and pain shot up her arm.

Cael moved at the same time.

He twisted his wrist.

A pulse ripped through the pavement. The ground bucked under the raiders. One crashed into a metal shutter. Another hit the stones and stayed there.

The third kept coming.

His hooked blade swung for Cael's neck.

Cael caught his wrist.

The raider grinned behind his mask. "There you are, little prince."

Cael's fingers tightened.

Light exploded between them.

The raider screamed. His weapon clattered away as a bright band of force hurled him against the wall and pinned him there.

"Cael!" Tessa shouted.

"He knows where they took your brother."

"He's not answering questions."

"He will."

The band around the raider's chest tightened. Bricks cracked behind him.

The warden officer shouted, "Arden, release him!"

Cael didn't blink.

His blank face scared Tessa more than the power did.

"Cael." She stepped toward him.

"Stay back."

"Let him go."

"He was sent to kill you."

"And if you crush him, the wardens shoot us anyway. Congratulations. You found a third way to ruin my night."

The raider clawed at the glowing band. "Your father was right. You always were a weapon."

Cael's eyes flared.

Tessa saw the pulse jump in his throat. The same rhythm struck beneath her own skin.

Their lock pulled tight.

It dragged her toward him.

She crossed the distance before she could change her mind and caught his face between both hands.

His skin burned beneath her palms.

"Look at me," she said.

His gaze dropped to her mouth for half a second.

Then it snapped back to her eyes.

"Move."

"No."

"Tessa, move your hands."

"Make me."

His breath caught.

The force around them shuddered. Heat crawled over her wrists. His heartbeat pounded through the lock, hard and furious, until her own pulse matched it.

"You don't get to decide who lives," she said. "Not him. Not me. Not my brother."

"They'll use him against you."

"Then help me keep him alive instead of turning him into a wall decoration."

The raider made a choking sound behind them.

Cael's fingers flexed at his sides. "He threatened you."

"People do that. You did it yesterday."

"I never threatened your brother."

"You threatened to break my hands."

"You were stealing from me."

"You were strapped to a black-market table. I call that abandoned property."

For one second, his mouth almost curved.

Not a smile. Something sharper. Something he killed before it could show.

The pressure dropped.

The raider fell to his knees, coughing.

Cael staggered.

Tessa caught his jacket. The force inside him slammed through the lock and into her chest. Her knees buckled. Heat raced down her arms, and the market blurred at the edges.

"Tessa!" Cael caught her around the waist.

She shoved at him. "Don't—"

"You took the backlash."

"I noticed."

"Why?"

"Because if you exploded, we'd all have a worse problem."

"That isn't what I asked."

His hand stayed at her waist, firm but careful. His thumb pressed against her coat near her racing pulse.

The contact was too steady. Too warm.

"Let go," she whispered.

"Can you stand?"

"I can hit you from here."

"That wasn't my question."

Weapons clicked behind them.

The wardens had recovered.

Niko leaned out from behind the rig. "Romantic disaster later. Death squad now. Get in the car."

"It's not a car," Tessa said.

"It has wheels and a bad attitude. Move!"

Cael pulled her toward the rig.

She dug in her heels. "I'm not getting inside with him until we fix the lock."

"The lock is already fixed," Cael said.

"It fused. That's not fixed."

"If you get more than six feet away, my power tears loose."

"How do you know?"

"I tried."

"When?"

"While you were busy insulting me."

Niko pointed at the cracked shield. "The city has three minutes before the upper grid drops. After that, every pulse channel in this district goes wild. Sign a stabilizing pact or start picking which building falls on us."

Tessa stared at him. "You can write one?"

"I can steal one. Writing's for people with clean hands."

He pulled a thin metal slate from beneath the driver's seat and slapped it onto the rig's hood. Symbols crawled across the screen.

Cael stepped between Tessa and the wardens. "The pact binds our pulse channels. I take the first hit from any overload."

"And me?"

"You keep me conscious."

"That sounds like your problem."

"If I lose control, the lock drains through you."

She looked at the slate. "Say the rest."

Cael's face hardened. "If either of us breaks the pact before seven days, the lock shuts permanently."

"Permanently means what?"

"One heart stops."

Niko's eyes jumped between them. "His, if the Authority gets close. Yours, if he dies first. Pick your favorite nightmare."

A shot struck the rig.

Metal screamed.

Tessa grabbed the slate. "What does it cost to sign?"

"A blood mark and a shared memory," Cael said.

"How much memory?"

"Enough for the lock to recognize us."

"You could use that to dig through my head."

"So could you."

"I don't want your memories."

"You're a terrible liar."

She shoved the slate against his chest. "You don't read anything I don't give you."

His hand closed around her wrist.

Warm. Steady. Not painful.

Still impossible to ignore.

"Then choose the memory," he said. "Something small. Something true."

"And you?"

"Same deal."

"If you cheat—"

"You break my nose."

"I was going to say I kill you."

"You can do both."

The words landed too close.

His eyes stayed on hers. Dust marked his cheek. His breath brushed her face each time he spoke. For one stupid second, she wanted to wipe the dust away.

She hated that.

She hated him more for noticing.

Tessa dragged her thumb across the slate's sharp edge. A red line opened across her skin.

Cael caught her wrist before she pulled away.

"Don't flinch," he said.

"Don't command me."

"Then don't move."

He pressed his thumb beside hers.

The slate flashed.

A thread of light jumped from their hands and wrapped around both wrists. Tessa gasped as a memory tore loose.

Not stolen.

Offered.

A little boy's voice filled her head.

Tessa, look. I fixed the radio.

Her brother's crooked grin. Grease on his nose. The cheap toy radio sparking between his hands.

Then the memory vanished.

Cael stumbled, eyes squeezed shut.

"Your turn," Tessa said.

"I gave one."

"That was mine."

"The pact needs both."

"Cael."

He opened his eyes.

For half a breath, the control slipped. He looked younger. Tired. Trapped.

Then he said, "My sister used to hide in the shield room. She hated the alarms. I told her I could make them stop."

His voice went rough.

"I couldn't."

The light tightened around their wrists.

The pact sealed with a sharp pulse.

Tessa felt him inside the edges of her awareness—not thoughts or words. Direction. Pain. Power held behind locked doors.

Cael felt her too.

His head snapped up. "You have a cut-lock signature."

Her stomach dropped. "What?"

"In your pulse. Someone taught you how to break a heartlock."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I know exactly what I'm talking about."

Niko jumped into the driver's seat. "Fight in the back. Now!"

Tessa shoved Cael into the rig and climbed in after him. The door slammed as bolts hammered into the metal.

The engine roared.

A warden fired through the windshield. Niko jerked the wheel, and the rig smashed through a barricade.

Tessa slammed into the side wall.

Cael caught her before her head struck the frame.

"You keep doing that," she said.

"You keep falling."

"I was pushed."

"By your own bad decisions."

"Keep talking and I'll test the permanent-heart-stop clause."

His arm stayed braced behind her shoulders as the rig tore through a narrow service lane. Their knees pressed together with every turn. Heat. Leather. Sharp breaths in the cramped space.

Niko glanced at them through the cracked mirror. "I hate to interrupt whatever murder-marriage thing you're doing, but we need somewhere to hide."

"The old records vault," Tessa said. "Under South Market."

Cael shook his head. "Too obvious."

"The wardens burned it six years ago. Nobody checks ash."

"Why do you know that?"

"Because I was there."

"Of course you were."

"Do you want the safe route or another lecture?"

Niko took the turn without asking.

The rig dropped through a broken loading gate and slammed into the underground vault. The lights came on in broken strips. Half the shelves had collapsed. Blackened papers covered the floor.

Niko killed the engine.

For two seconds, nobody moved.

Then the pact yanked hard—