Chapter 6 · Married on Camera

The marriage certificate hit the marble counter at seven in the morning.

I'd been awake for three hours. Dorian looked like he hadn't slept at all. His shirt was clean but his jaw was tight and there were shadows under his eyes that makeup wasn't going to fix.

"This is insane," I said.

He poured himself coffee. Black. No sugar. "You have a better plan?"

I didn't. The Echo's coordinates were still burning in my head. My mother's voice saying she sold me. Dorian's silver bullets doing nothing.

I picked up the certificate. It was real. Embossed seal. Witness signatures I didn't recognize. Marriage between Mara Voss and Dorian Ash, dated today.

"How did you even—"

"I own the clerk's office," Dorian said. He wasn't joking.

I put the paper down. "So we're married."

"On paper. The council needs proof it's real." He glanced at his phone. "Press conference is in two hours."

My stomach dropped. "What press conference?"

"The one where I introduce my wife." He said it like he was scheduling a dentist appointment. "Ash Meridian stock is volatile right now. A marriage announcement stabilizes things. And it puts you under my name. Publicly.