Chapter 15 · Shared Liability

"Take your name off the purge order, Adrian, or I swear I'll burn this vault with both of us inside it."

His hand clamped around my wrist before I could reach the command seal.

"You don't have time to threaten me, Mara."

"Then stop wasting it."

The floor bucked beneath us. Behind the glass, rows of memory cylinders flashed red. Each one held a name, a birth record, a death date—and enough stolen history to ruin half of Vesper Bay.

Adrian stepped between me and the central console. His black coat hung open at the shoulder. Blood had soaked through the white shirt beneath it.

Not much.

Enough to turn my stomach.

"The purge has started," he said. "If I don't bind myself to it, the tribunal transfers the order to you."

"How convenient."

"It's not convenient. It's the only way to keep you alive."

"You lost the right to make that call when you let Marlow brand you."

His fingers tightened over my pulse.

The judgment mark beneath his collar pulsed black. Thin lines crawled over his skin like ink under glass.

The city believed anything attached to that mark.