"Tell me where you hid the seal, or I start breaking fingers."
Calder Rook sat on the floor with one knee up, his wrists tied behind him by a strip of iron-thread. He looked annoyingly comfortable for a man who had just stolen Veyra City's living seal and nearly gotten them both killed.
"You already asked that," he said.
Mara Voss tightened the thread.
Calder's smile slipped. "You could've said please."
"I don't say please to smugglers."
"You did when you were still wearing a badge."
Her hand stopped.
He saw it. Of course he saw it. Calder noticed everything that might hurt someone later.
Mara pressed two fingers against the thread and fed a thin stream of null magic into it. The metal flashed white. Calder's shoulders locked.
"Try that again," she said. "Where is the seal?"
"Not on me."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No. I expect you to search me and get embarrassed when you don't find it."
The abandoned print shop around them shook as something struck the outside wall. Dust dropped from the ceiling. A rune flare lit the broken windows blue.
The city guard had found them.
Mara grabbed Calder by the collar and hauled him against the nearest press. His head hit the iron frame with a hard crack. His breath came out hot against her cheek.
"Listen carefully," she said. "You have a guard squad outside, a stolen city seal somewhere in this building, and a bond wrapped around both our wrists. If you lie again, I will pull the magic out of your bones one thread at a time."
His eyes dropped to her mouth for half a second.
Then he looked back up. "You always get this close when you're threatening people?"
"Only when they need help understanding."
"I understand you fine. You hate me."
"I hate that you keep making me save you."
"That's not hate. That's frustration."
Mara shoved harder. "Where is it?"
Calder's jaw tightened, but the grin stayed. "The seal isn't a weapon."
"I didn't ask what it was."
"You were going to. You have that look. The one you wore before you ruined my life."
The words landed cleanly. Too cleanly.
Mara pulled back just enough to study him. "You think I ruined your life?"
"You signed the verdict that put three of my people in the river cells."
"I signed a verdict based on evidence."
"You signed it before the evidence was complete."
Another blast hit the wall. A section of brick split open. Through the gap, Mara saw silver helmets moving between the alley lamps.
"The guard is thirty seconds away," Calder said. "If you want to keep interrogating me, do it while we run."
"You're not running anywhere."
"Then you're dying here with me."
His voice had lost the teasing edge. That was the first honest thing he had given her all night.
Mara sliced the iron-thread with a sharp pulse of magic. Calder rolled away as the wall behind him exploded. A rune bolt tore through the press, spraying hot metal across the room.
He caught her around the waist and dragged her down.
They hit the floor together. His body covered hers. The scent of smoke and crushed mint clung to his coat. His hand braced beside her head, close enough that she felt heat from his palm without being touched.
"Get off me," she whispered.
"Happy to. Give me somewhere safe to go."
"The roof."
"No."
"You don't get to vote."
"The roof is warded."
"How do you know?"
"Because I put the ward there."
Mara shoved at his chest. He caught both her wrists and pinned them above her head for one sharp second.
His gaze held hers.
"Let go," she said.
"Stop trying to hit me."
"You first."
"You're the one on the floor."
"You're the one holding me down."
A fresh bolt smashed through the ceiling. Calder released her and rolled behind a stack of cracked paper crates. Mara followed, keeping low.
"You said the roof was warded," she hissed.
"It is. The guard won't use it."
"So your plan is to climb into a trap they won't use?"
"My plan is better than yours. Yours is apparently 'tie up the smuggler and wait for the law to rescue me.'"
"The law doesn't rescue exiles. It arrests them."
"Good. Then we have a shared problem."
Mara stared at him through the dust. "You know who I am."
"Everyone knows who you are. Mara Voss. Former hex auditor. The woman who found flaws in every contract in the city until one contract found a flaw in her."
"Careful."
"There it is again. That badge voice."
"I don't have a badge."
"You don't need one. You threaten like a woman with a whole prison behind her."
The guard shouted from the alley.
"Mara Voss! Drop your weapon and step away from the criminal!"
Calder leaned closer. "See? They gave you a title. Criminal."
"And they gave you an invitation to be hanged."
"Only if they catch me."
"They will."
"Not if you do what I say."
She laughed once. It came out sharp. "You stole the seal, got us chained together, and now you think you're in charge?"
"I know exactly who's in charge."
He glanced at the glowing mark around her wrist.
The seal's chain had started as a thin black line. It now ran from her wrist to his, pulsing with each heartbeat. Every pulse sent a hot pinch through Mara's arm.
"Then explain it," she said. "Why does it hurt when I get more than ten feet away?"
"Because the seal doesn't like being separated from its thief."
"I'm not the thief."
"You're attached to him. The magic doesn't care about your moral objections."
"How far can we get?"
"Not far."
"That's not an answer."
"Eight feet before the chain tightens. Twelve before it starts pulling bone."
Mara's fingers curled. "You tested it."
"I had a minute while you were busy trying to carve me open."
"You could have told me."
"You were holding a knife to my throat."
"I still am."
The blade touched the skin beneath his jaw.
Calder went very still. His throat moved against the edge.
"You want the seal?" he asked.
"I want the truth."
"Those aren't the same thing."
"They are tonight."