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Kellan's hand closed around the black key hard enough to split the skin across his knuckles.
Avery saw the chain move before he did.
Thin copper lines lit beneath his throat. They crawled up his jaw and vanished behind his ear. His shoulders snapped toward her.
Sera shoved the ledgers under her coat. "Don't let him touch you."
"Great advice. Got anything useful?"
"Run."
Kellan crossed the room in two steps.
Avery backed into the iron shelves. Her injured thigh struck the bottom rung, and pain shot up to her hip. She nearly dropped the bone-steel cuff around her wrist.
Kellan's face had gone blank.
Not calm. Not controlled.
Blank.
That scared her more than the sword.
"Kellan."
His eyes snapped to hers. For half a second, she saw him in there. His mouth moved, but the words came out rough and broken.
"Get away from me."
"Working on it."
The chain under his skin tightened with a wet click.
His right arm swung.
Avery ducked. His fist smashed through the shelf beside her head. Iron screamed. Glass jars burst, spilling black powder across the floor.
Sera grabbed Avery's coat and yanked her sideways. "That wasn't him."
"I noticed."
Kellan ripped his hand free. Blood ran down his wrist. The black key stayed locked in his fist, its teeth aimed at Avery like a tiny row of knives.
The room shook.
Something huge struck metal below the market.
Once.
Twice.
Copper pipes groaned inside the walls.
Then Kellan spoke with a voice that wasn't his.
"Bring the keymaker to the Heart Furnace."
Avery's stomach turned cold.
Sera's face lost its color. "It found you."
"It already knew where I was."
"No. Before, it knew the key." Sera stared at the black metal in his hand. "Now it knows you."
Kellan stepped closer.
Avery raised her cuff. The bone-steel band had been biting into her palm for ten minutes, but she welcomed the pain. Pain meant she still controlled something.
"Kellan, listen to me."
His jaw clenched. "I'm listening."
"Then stop walking."
His boot scraped over the floor.
"I can't."
"You can. Try harder."
His left hand clamped around his right wrist. The muscles in his arm jumped as he fought himself. The chain mark flared brighter.
He stopped.
Avery held her breath.
Sera whispered, "Can you hold him?"
"Not for long."
"How long is not long?"
"Long enough to make me angry."
Kellan's right hand tore free and reached for the sword at his hip.
Sera swore and threw a brass cup at him.
It bounced off his shoulder.
Kellan drew the blade.
The room shrank around them. Blue rune-light slid along the edge and cut across his face. He looked sick. Trapped. Furious.
"Avery," he said.
His voice was his again.
She stared at him. "Yeah?"
"When I move, don't wait."
"Not planning to."
"No. You don't get it."
The chain around his throat pulled tight. His chin jerked up. A thin line of blood appeared beneath the copper mark.
"You need to kill me before I reach you."
Sera stepped between them. "There's got to be another way."
"There isn't." Kellan kept his eyes on Avery. "The command is simple. I take her to the furnace. If she resists, I break her. If she runs, I hunt her. If I can't bring her alive—"
His fingers tightened around the sword.
"I kill her."
Avery's fear burned into anger.
Nolan had signed her name into a ledger. Ashback had dragged her through a door. Now the city had put a blade in Kellan's hand and expected her to stand still while it made him use it.
No.
Absolutely not.
She glanced at the black key. Its teeth trembled against his palm, aimed at the copper rune beneath his throat.
Not his heart.
The rune.
Avery looked at the collar of his coat, then at the ring of tools on her belt.
Her picks. Her tension wrench. Her narrow awl. The folding chisel she'd made from a broken watch spring.
Locks had weak points.
Chains did too.
"Sera," Avery said, keeping her eyes on Kellan, "how long does the furnace command last?"
"Until it's completed."
"That's not what I asked."
"The command doesn't stop."
"Everything stops if you break the control."
Sera's gaze dropped to Kellan's throat. "Maybe."
"You said you knew how his curse works."
"I said I knew how not to die near it. Big difference."
"Then tell me what happens if I hit the rune."
"You could break the command."
"And the part you're avoiding?"
"You could kill him."
Kellan took another step.
Avery backed away from the shelves and toward the table where Sera had left the ledgers. Her bad leg dragged. Kellan noticed. His expression twisted.
"Don't run," he said.
"You literally told me to."
"Avery."
"I'm thinking. Give me a second."
His sword rose.
The chain pulled his arm forward. He fought it until the tendons stood out along his neck. His boots carved grooves into the dusty floor. The black key ground into his palm.
"Do it," he rasped.
"Do what?"
"Whatever you're gonna do."
"You sure?"
"No."
The sword moved.
Avery threw herself at him.
She didn't go for the blade. That was the first thing he'd expect. She went low, ducked beneath his arm, and slammed her shoulder into his ribs.
Kellan grunted. His free hand caught the back of her coat.
The chain forced him to turn with her.
Avery drove her elbow into his stomach.
He folded just enough.
She ripped the tool ring from her belt. "Hold still."
"That's not happening."
"Then bite down."
She spun the ring once and brought the heaviest tool down against the rune at his throat.
The folding chisel struck copper.
The sound punched through the room.
Kellan went rigid.
The sword dropped from his hand.
Every rune on the walls blew out.
For one breath, the market went silent.
No pipes. No shaking floor. No city groaning beneath them.
Only Kellan's breath against Avery's cheek.
Then the chain snapped.
Not all the way. Avery felt that immediately. The control didn't break like a lock opening. It tore loose like a cheap hinge pulled from rotten wood.
Kellan's eyes cleared.
He stared at Avery, one hand hovering near her ribs, the other still closed around the black key.
"What'd you do?"
"I hit the ugly part."
"That was my throat."
"Yeah. I noticed that too."
His knees buckled.
Avery caught him before his head struck the floor. He was heavier than he looked, all hard muscle and dead weight. They hit the ground together, his back against the iron shelf, her knee wedged between his boots.
Sera crouched beside them. "Kellan?"
He didn't answer.
His eyes rolled back. The copper lines around his throat faded to dull brown.
Avery pressed two fingers to his neck. His pulse hammered against them.
"He's alive."
"For now," Sera said.
"You're really good at comfort."
Sera pointed at the bent chisel. "You hit the command rune."
"I guessed."
"You guessed wrong, he'd be dead."
Avery looked down at Kellan's pale face. "He was going to kill me."
"He was trying not to."
"That doesn't make me feel better."
"It should." Sera's voice went flat. "In Ashback, people don't try. They obey."
Avery shoved the broken chisel back onto her ring. Her fingers had started shaking.
Kellan had warned her. He'd asked her to kill him.
She'd chosen to tear the curse out instead.
"That was stupid," Sera said.
Avery looked at her. "I didn't say it out loud."
"You didn't have to."
A sharp click came from Kellan's hand.
The black key turned by itself.
His fingers loosened.
Avery reached for it, but Kellan moved first. He woke with a violent gasp, rolled onto one knee, and snatched the sword from the floor.
Avery froze.
The blade flashed up between them.
Sera's hand went to a throwing knife. "Kellan."
He ignored her.
His eyes were clear now. Dark. Focused. His breathing came hard through his nose.
He looked at Avery's empty hand.
Then he turned the sword around and offered her the hilt.
Avery didn't take it. "What're you doing?"
"Giving it back."
"You almost cut my head off."
"I missed."
"That's your defense?"
"It's the truth."
The corner of his mouth twitched, but the humor died fast. He pushed the sword closer.
"Take it."
"Why?"
"Because if it happens again, you may not have time to hit the rune."
"You're handing me the sword you're supposed to use on me?"
"I'm handing you a chance."
"That sounds suspiciously noble."
"Don't ruin it."
She took the sword.
His fingers brushed hers.
The black key jerked in his other hand. A cold pulse ran through both of them. Avery felt it climb her arm and settle behind her ribs.
Kellan flinched.
"You felt that," she said.
"Yeah."
"What was it?"
He looked toward the floor.
Something moved beneath the boards. Slow. Wet. Close.
"The city heard you break the command."
Sera stood. "We need to leave. Now."
Avery got to her feet, using the sword as a cane. Her thigh screamed when she put weight on it.
"Where?"
"Anywhere that isn't here."
"You said the exits were sealed."
"They are."
"Then where're we going?"
Sera pointed at the back wall.
A narrow door had appeared between two shelves. A moment ago, there'd been nothing there. Now copper roots spread around its frame, pulsing like veins. A black keyhole waited at the center.
Avery's key pulled toward it.
Kellan grabbed her wrist. His palm was hot against her skin.
"Don't."
"It's a door."
"It's a mouth."
The copper around the frame split open.
A whisper slid through the room.
Then another.
Then dozens.
Every copper throat built into Ashback spoke at once.
"Avery Vale."
Her name rolled through the market.
Avery went still.
Sera's hand closed around her knife. "It knows your full name."
"I heard it."
"No, you don't understand. The city only uses full names for—"
The floor bucked.
Shelves tore free from the walls. Jars smashed. Copper roots punched through the boards and wrapped around table legs.
Outside the hidden room, people started screaming.
The mobile market lurched sideways. Canvas walls ripped open, revealing a street that hadn't been there before. Buildings leaned inward, their windows opening like black eyes.
Kellan shoved Avery behind him and drew a second knife from his boot.
"Stay close."
She tightened her grip on his sword. "I thought you said not to let you touch me."
"That was before the whole city woke up."
The voices spoke again, louder this time.
"Avery Vale. Black key. Unregistered maker. Bring her to the Heart Furnace."
Every door in the market slammed open.
Figures poured into the street. Some wore masks. Some wore butcher aprons. One woman had copper wire stitched through both cheeks, holding her smile too wide.
They all turned toward Avery.
No one looked at Kellan.
That was the worst part.
The city wasn't sending them to stop her.
It was sending them to catch her.
Kellan's curse mark flared beneath his throat. He staggered, one hand flying to the rune.
Avery caught his sleeve. "Kellan?"
He looked at her. Fear cracked through his face.
"It changed the order."
"To what?"
He glanced at the black key, then at the door. "It doesn't want you dead."
"You said it wants me at the furnace."
"That's not the same thing."
"Then what does it want?"
The copper throats repeated her name from every street in Ashback.
Kellan's grip closed around her arm. "It wants you to open the furnace."
Avery's blood chilled. "I can't open anything."
"Your father could."
She stared at him. "What did you just say?"
"Nolan didn't sign your name into that ledger to save you. He registered you as the next keymaker."
Sera's face tightened. "Kellan—"
"She deserves the truth."
Avery looked at the black key. Its teeth had stopped trembling. They pointed straight at the door.
"How long have you known?"
Kellan's jaw worked. "Since the first time the chain pulled me toward you."
"And you waited until now?"
"I was trying to keep you alive."
"By letting me believe my father was only desperate?"
"By keeping you angry enough to run."
The door opened wider.
Something on the other side inhaled.
The sound dragged every loose scrap of paper across the floor.
Kellan stepped in front of her. "You can hate me after we get through this."
"That's convenient."
"Avery, choose."
"Choose what?"
"Walk through with me, or let the city take you alone."
The copper roots tightened around the doorframe. The opening began to shrink.
Avery looked at Kellan's hand around her wrist, then at the sword he'd given her.
"If I go through, you come with me."
"I already said—"
"Say it."
His eyes held hers. "I come with you."
The door snapped narrower.
Behind it, something vast shifted in the dark.
Kellan pulled her forward.
Avery planted her bad leg and refused to move. "And if Nolan sent me there to die?"
Kellan's fingers tightened. "Then I'll be the one who gets you out."
The street behind them filled with footsteps.
Sera shouted, "Now!"
Kellan lunged for the closing doorway, dragging Avery with him—and beneath her father's name, a second line of copper letters flared to life: