Chapter 4

"Take your hand off me."

"Not until you tell me why the Black Seal is moving."

"Maybe it hates you."

His thumb pressed over the newest mark. Pain snapped up my arm, sharp enough to make my knees dip.

Lucan pulled me against him before I hit the stone floor. My shoulder struck his chest. Hard muscle. Clean soap. A thin bite of metal from the blade hidden under his coat.

"You stole something from my evidence room," he said near my ear.

I looked down at the glass vial between my fingers.

The original blood sample shimmered red inside it.

"You noticed."

His grip tightened. "Put it back."

"Open the Black Seal vault."

For half a second, his face went still.

There it was. Not fear. Not surprise.

A calculation.

I knew that look. Men wore it when they thought they had found the price of a woman.

"You broke into my office, stole sealed evidence, and now you're making demands?" Lucan asked.

"You left the sample in a drawer with a lock any bored clerk could pick. That's not a vault. That's an invitation."

"You want access to a sealed archive."

"I want the truth behind the order with my name on it."

His eyes dropped to the paper sticking out of my coat.

The death order Bram had pushed into my palm still felt hot against my ribs. My signature sat at the bottom. Perfect. Clean. Mine.

Except I had never signed it.

Lucan dragged his gaze back to my face. "That order is nine months old."

"You read it."

"I read everything that passes through the Black Seal."

"Then stop pretending you don't know who forged it."

His jaw flexed. "I didn't say I knew."

"You didn't say you didn't."

The black lines climbed another inch toward my elbow.

Lucan saw it. His thumb shifted over my pulse.

My breath caught before I could stop it.

He noticed that too.

"You're afraid," he said.

"Of the mark? No. Of men who touch women without permission? Constantly."

"You were about to fall."

"I would've fallen with dignity. Move."

He didn't.

His body blocked the only door between us and the corridor. One hand held my wrist. The other braced beside my head against the wall.

Close enough that his breath touched my cheek.

Close enough for me to feel the steady beat under his shirt.

"You want into the vault," he said. "Fine. Tell me what you can do with the sample."

"You want my gift first?"

"I want to know if you're useful."

I smiled without warmth. "Careful. That almost sounded like a compliment."

"Don't flatter yourself."

"Then stop looking at my mouth."

His eyes lifted to mine.

For one hard second, neither of us moved.

Then Lucan released my wrist like I'd burned him.

"Show me."

I stepped away, rubbing the red marks he had left behind. "Take me to the vault."

"No."

"Then I break the vial."

His gaze dropped to the glass.

"You won't."

"Try me."

I raised my hand.

Lucan crossed the space between us so fast the air changed. He caught my fingers before they closed around the vial, his palm covering mine.

The glass pressed between our hands.

"You break that sample," he said, "and every person tied to its chain of custody disappears before sunrise. Including the woman who helped you steal it."

My stomach tightened.

"Leave Evelyn out of this."

"Then stop using her as a shield."

"You had her brother dragged into council custody."

"I had him questioned."

"You call locking a man in a basement questioning?"

"I call it mercy. The council wanted his tongue cut out."

That landed harder than I wanted it to.

Lucan leaned closer. "You need the vault. I need your blood-reading gift. We can keep threatening each other until the guards find us, or we can make a deal."

"Your deals have teeth."

"So do you."

"Mine are honest."

His mouth pulled tight. "You read curse residue from blood. You can tell who handled an object, what spell touched it, and whether the evidence was altered."

"You did your homework."

"I know what you are."

The words struck low.

Not who.

What.

I yanked my hand free. "Say that again."

"You heard me."

"No, I heard a Black Seal investigator call me a thing. I want to hear you explain it."

"Your gift is rare. Dangerous. And every person who wants access to the council's sealed records will come after you once they learn you're alive."

"They already did. You watched Bram put me on trial."

"I watched the council put you on trial."

"You stood beside him."

Lucan's expression didn't move, but his fingers curled once at his side.

There. A weak spot.

I stepped into it.

"You wore the Black Seal when they read my death sentence," I said. "You held the order. You watched Bram call me a murderer, and you said nothing."

"You think I had the power to stop it?"

"You had a mouth."

"So did you."

"Mine was gagged."

His silence told me more than an apology would have.

The room seemed to shrink around us.

I lifted the vial between us. "Open the vault, Lucan. Or I shout for the guards and tell them you stole evidence from your own office."

"They won't believe you."

"They'll believe this."

I twisted the cap.

The seal cracked.

Lucan's hand closed around my throat—not tight enough to choke, just enough to stop me breathing for one stunned beat.

His face was inches from mine.

"Don't," he said.

The word came out rough.

His thumb rested under my jaw. I could feel his pulse through his skin. Fast now.

I should have slapped him.

Instead, I whispered, "That sounded like fear."

His gaze dropped to my lips again.

"It was a warning."

"Then warn me properly."

His fingers loosened.

I shoved him back and sealed the vial.

Lucan let me go, but his stare stayed on my mouth like he hated that it had been there.

"You're reckless," he said.

"I'm dead already. Reckless is all I have left."

"You have thirty days."

My hand stopped on the latch of the evidence room.

"What did you say?"

He didn't blink. "The mark on your veins. It will reach your heart in thirty days if the death order remains active."

"Bram said the order was symbolic."

"Bram lies for a living."

"And you don't?"

"Not when the truth can kill me."

I turned fully toward him. "What happens in thirty days?"

"You die."

"Again?"

The word slipped out before I could stop it.

Lucan's face sharpened.

I hated myself for giving him that much.

"You remember the execution?" he asked.

"I remember enough."

"Then you remember the Black Seal was in the room."

"I remember you standing behind the executioner."

His eyes went cold. "You remember wrong."

"Do I?"

"You were drugged. Bound. Your curse readings had already been tampered with."

"You sound very certain for a man who claims he wasn't involved."

"I didn't claim that."

My fingers tightened around the vial.

He let me sit with that.

Then he pulled a thin black strip of paper from inside his coat and held it out.

"Truth bond," he said. "You give me access to your gift. I give you access to the vault. No lies about the evidence. No hiding what you see. No disappearing before the work is done."

I stared at the strip. The ink moved like oil under glass.

"And the price?"

"You work under my protection."

"Prisoner, you mean."

"Call it whatever helps you sleep."

"I don't sleep well."

"I noticed."

I snatched the paper from his hand.

The edge cut my thumb.

A bead of blood rose.

Lucan's eyes followed it.

"You said no lies," I said. "That includes your name."

His stare turned flat. "My name is Lucan Thorne."

"That's what the city calls you."

"It's what I answer to."

"Not the same thing."

"You want the vault or not?"

"I want a second condition."

"You don't get to add conditions."

"Then walk away and explain to your superiors why the only person who can read the forged blood evidence died before you got answers."