Chapter 20 · Sold Back to Kade

Evelyn stared at the phone in her hand like it might bite her.

Two hours. Her brother was going on the block in two hours, and Mara had just walked into a room full of guards who'd kill her if they figured out she didn't belong there.

The contract vault was three floors down. The evidence that could bury Silas was right there, close enough she could taste it.

Her brother was across the city in a cage.

Nolan leaned against the wall behind her, breathing too fast. The black fire had crept up past his collarbone now, veins of it threading under his jaw. He wasn't going to last much longer. Maybe an hour if she was lucky. Maybe less.

"Go," he said. His voice came out rough, like something was tearing in his chest. "Get the contract. I'll hold them off."

She turned on him. "You can't even stand."

"I can stand long enough." He pulled the dead-man key out of his pocket, the one that would sever his bloodline and lock every door in the tower if he used it. "You need that evidence. Without it, Silas wins. Your brother stays sold.