Chapter 20 · Judgment in the Dark

"Don't touch the page."

Mara's fingers were already under the corner when Calder caught her wrist.

His grip locked tight. Not painful yet. A warning.

The living map crawled across the floor between them, its black lines twitching like veins under skin. Their stolen proof lay in the center: Mara's old audit record, rewritten in fresh red ink, with a route burning straight toward the City Watch headquarters.

Calder pulled her hand back.

"You said we needed the proof," she snapped.

"We do."

"Then let go."

"Not while the floor is armed."

A thin blue line flashed beneath Mara's boot.

Calder shoved her backward.

The tile where she had stood split open with a sharp crack. Three silver spikes punched through it and vanished again.

Mara hit his chest. His coat scraped against her knuckles, and the heat of him pressed through the fabric. He caught her around the waist before she could fall, keeping her inches from the glowing line.

"You were about to step into a kill-grid," he said.

"I was about to read the map."

"The map doesn't care about your career."

"My career is already dead. You helped bury it."

His mouth tightened. "Still blaming me?"