Chapter 3

"Move."

"You move. You're the one chained to the floor."

His head snapped toward me. The red mark around his wrist pulsed like a live wire. It had appeared when I opened the first spirit lock, and every pulse made the veins in his hand stand out.

Beyond the glass, more shapes rushed through the lower corridor.

Guards. Six of them. Maybe eight.

Silver masks flashed beneath the emergency lights.

Cade reached for the sword at his hip, then stopped. The binding mark flared brighter.

His eyes cut to me. "What did you do?"

"I opened the lock. You got branded. I'm not taking credit for your bad luck."

"The mark answers to you."

"Then stop staring at it and tell me how to use it."

The nearest glass wall exploded.

Cade caught me around the waist and dragged me behind a steel examination table. His chest hit my back. Heat pressed through my jacket. His breath brushed my neck, quick and sharp.

I drove my elbow into his ribs.

"Touch me again and I'll break something."

"You can complain after we survive."

"I complain better under pressure."

A bolt punched through the table. Metal screamed inches from my face.

Cade shoved me lower. "They're not here for me."

"They're wearing the city execution crest. They're here for both of us."

"They want the core."

"You still think destroying it is the answer?"

He looked past me at the black crystal mounted inside the far wall. It was no bigger than a fist, but every emergency light bent toward it. Thin red lines crawled beneath its surface.

"That thing resets the city," he said. "Break it, and the cycle ends."

"Break it, and every stolen spell inside this place goes with it."

"You care about your power more than the people trapped in here?"

"I care about getting enough power to stop the next reset. You want to smash the only thing keeping us alive."

"It isn't keeping us alive. It's keeping us obedient."

The door at the end of the lab buckled inward.

Cade grabbed my wrist. His fingers were rough and warm against my skin.

"Listen to me, Lena. If they take that core, we don't get another run. No reset. No second chance."

"Good. Maybe next time you won't put a blade through me."

His grip tightened. "You want to argue about the ninth time while armed guards are breaking in?"

"You started it."

"I ended it. Every time."

The door burst open.

Three masked guards charged through the smoke.

Cade pulled me behind him and drew his sword with his free hand. The binding mark flashed. Pain crossed his face—quick, sharp, impossible to miss.

His right arm barely moved.

One guard lifted a hooked rifle.

Cade kicked the examination table forward. It slammed into the guard's knees. Before the man could recover, Cade drove his shoulder into him and sent them both crashing into the shattered glass.

The other two came for me.

I ducked under the first blade and caught the guard's wrist. Warding thread covered his glove. I couldn't steal the spell pattern outright, but I could feel its shape beneath the metal weave.

"You picked the wrong thief," I said.

I twisted.

The guard dropped to one knee. His rifle clattered across the floor.

I slapped my palm against the weapon and pulled.

The spell tore loose with a burst of blue sparks.

"Cade!"

He turned too late.

The second guard fired.

Cade stepped between us.

The bolt struck his shoulder and threw him into a glass chamber. The chamber cracked behind his head. His sword slipped from his hand.

"Cade!"

"Don't sound so worried. It's distracting."

Blood spread beneath his collar.

The guard raised the rifle again.

I shoved the stolen spell into the weapon.

The rifle shrieked and fired into the ceiling. Stone dust rained over us.

Cade crossed the room in three hard steps and drove his fist into the guard's mask. The man folded.

The first guard staggered up behind him.

I snatched Cade's sword from the floor and threw it.

The blade pinned the guard's sleeve to the wall.

Cade stared at me.

"You just saved me."

"Don't make it weird."

"You missed his arm by less than an inch."

"I was aiming for his arm."

"You were aiming for his throat."

"And yet you're still talking. Try gratitude."

The lab shook.

Every glass chamber along the walls lit at once.

Behind each pane, a person floated in cloudy liquid. Men. Women. City uniforms. Plain clothes. One girl looked no older than twenty.

Their eyes were closed.

Thin silver threads ran from their wrists into the chamber walls.

Cade's expression went flat.

"Those weren't here last run," he said.

"They were. You just didn't look."

"How many?"

"Thirty-two in this room. More below."

His gaze locked on the black crystal. "The core has to go. Now."

He reached for it.

The red mark on his wrist flared.

A force slammed him backward. He hit the floor on one knee, teeth clenched.

I stepped over a fallen rifle. "It won't let you touch it."

"Then cut the mark off."

"With what?"

He looked toward the sword still pinning the guard to the wall.

"My spell."

I glanced at his shoulder. Blood had soaked through his coat. His face had gone pale, but his eyes stayed fixed on mine.

"That spell is tied to your life."

"You know how to steal patterns."

"Stealing isn't cutting."

"You've stolen worse."

The lab doors slammed shut behind us.

A voice boomed from the ceiling. "Containment protocol active. Trial subject and execution asset sealed."

Cade's jaw tightened. "They're locking us in."

"I noticed."

"If you cut the binding, it may take my hand."

"That's your concern?"

"No. My concern is that you'll panic and cut through my heart."

I moved closer. "You think I panic?"

"I think you hate me enough to make mistakes."

"I hate you enough to be careful."

For half a second, neither of us moved.

His eyes dropped to my mouth and came back up.

Fast. Barely there.

I still saw it.

"Don't look at me like that," I said.

"Like what?"

"Like you're deciding whether to kill me or kiss me."

His brows lifted. "Those are very different decisions."

"Not with you."

A sharp knock came from the chamber behind me.

The girl inside had opened her eyes.

Her mouth moved against the glass.

I couldn't hear her, but I knew the words.

Help me.

I turned toward the chamber.

Cade caught my hand before I could take a step.

"No."

"Let go."

"We don't have time."

"She's alive."

"So are we. Keep it that way."

"You've killed me eight times. Don't lecture me about survival."

His hand slid from my wrist to my palm. His skin was hot. Blood from his shoulder had reached his fingers.

"You want your power back," he said. "I want the core destroyed. We both want something. So stop fighting me for ten seconds and get me free."

"And then you'll help me open the next lock?"

"If you cut this mark, I'll owe you."

"You don't pay debts. You collect bodies."

His face tightened.

"Not yours," he said. "Not anymore."

The words landed harder than they should've.

I pulled my hand free and walked to the sword.

The weapon was wedged between two metal braces. I wrapped my fingers around the hilt.

The spell inside it pushed back, cold and vicious. It carried Cade's signature—clean lines, hard edges, no wasted movement.

Like him.

"Tell me what happens if this goes wrong," I said.

"My arm locks."

"And?"

"The mark spreads."

"How far?"

"Heart."

I looked over my shoulder. "You left out the important part."

"You asked what happens."

"I asked because I need to know how much of you I'm allowed to ruin."

His mouth twitched. "You're enjoying this."

"A little."

The ceiling voice spoke again. "Five minutes until purge."

Red light began filling the glass chambers.

Cade stood. He swayed once, then forced himself upright.

"Do it."

"Take off your coat."

"No."

"I need to see the mark."

"You can see it."

"I need room to work."

He didn't move.

I stepped in close and caught the front of his coat. "You want me to cut through a spell wrapped around your arm, but you're shy about a jacket?"

"I don't trust your hands."

"You trusted them when I stopped that rifle."

"I trusted the result."

"Then keep bleeding and die stubborn."

His gaze held mine.

Then he shrugged out of the coat.

The shirt beneath it clung to his shoulder, dark with blood. I reached for the torn fabric and paused.

"If you rip it, I'm charging you."

"Put it on my tab."

I tore the sleeve open.

His skin was hot beneath my knuckles. The red mark ran from his wrist to the inside of his elbow, shaped like a chain made of tiny teeth.

Cade inhaled through his nose.

"That hurts?"

"No. I'm making that face because I'm thrilled."

"You're impossible."

"You keep saying that like it's new information."

I pressed two fingers to the center of the mark.

The spell snapped at me.

Pain tore through my hand. I jerked back.

Cade caught my waist before I hit the floor.

"Lena."

"I'm fine."

"Your fingers are shaking."

"Your blood is trying to bite me. Hold still."

"That's not how blood works."

"In this city, it is."

I placed my palm against the mark again.

This time, I didn't pull at the outer lines. I reached deeper—past the warding pattern, past the command forcing Cade's body to obey the lock.

The spell showed me a door.

Behind it was a blade.

Behind the blade was Cade's memory.

His hand around my throat.

My body on the execution block.

His voice saying my name like he hated it.

Then his arms lifting me after the killing blow. His coat wrapped around me. His back turned to the guards while he carried me away.

I gasped.

Cade's fingers tightened at my waist. "What did you see?"

"You already know."

"I want to hear you say it."

"You kept taking my body."

"You died alone."

"You killed me."

"And I carried you out."

"That doesn't make it better."

"I didn't say it did."

The memory changed.

Eight versions of him. Eight versions of me.

Every run ended with the same red flash and the same hand lifting me from the stone.

The spell wasn't just a weapon.

It was a record.

I found the cut point.

"This will hurt," I said.

"Do it."

"No, Cade. Listen. When I cut this, the pain will cross the blood pact. We'll both feel it."

His face went still. "How long?"

"Until the mark dies."

"Can you stop it?"

"Not once I start."

He leaned close. His mouth hovered near my ear. His voice dropped low enough to stay between us.

"Then don't stop."

I swallowed. "If you scream, I'm laughing."

"If you scream, I'm remembering it."

"You remember everything anyway."

"Not everything."

His eyes held mine.

For one dangerous second, the room vanished behind the heat of his hand and the steady pressure of his body keeping me upright.

Then I drove the stolen spell into the mark.

Cade shouted.

The sound punched through my chest. The same pain ripped across my ribs, deep and bright. My knees buckled.

Cade caught me, but the spell dragged both of us down.

"Cut it!" he snarled.

"I'm trying!"

"Try harder!"

"Shut up!"

The mark split beneath my palm.

Pain flared again. His fingers dug into my side. My vision blurred, but I kept the spell steady.

"Lena, now!"

"I know!"

I twisted the pattern.

The red chain snapped.

Cade collapsed against me.

The force threw us into the nearest worktable. My back hit metal. He landed close, one hand braced beside my head, his face inches from mine.

For one breath, neither of us spoke.

His breath touched my cheek. Mine caught in my throat.

"Get off me," I whispered.

"You're the one holding my shirt."

I looked down.

My fist had twisted into the fabric over his chest.

I released him. "You were falling."

"You could've let me."

"I considered it."

"Liar."

The word came soft. Too soft.

I shoved him away and stood. "Can you move your arm?"

He flexed his fingers. The mark had vanished, but a thin red line remained beneath his skin.

"Yes."

"Then destroy the core."

Cade pushed himself upright.

I grabbed the sword from the wall and carried it toward the black crystal. The guards groaned behind us. The chambers flashed brighter. The trapped girl struck the glass again and again.

Cade followed, one hand pressed to his bleeding shoulder.

"Lena," he said. "Wait."

"You said destroy it."

"I said the core has to go. I didn't say touch it."

"That's usually how destroying things works."

The crystal pulsed.

Every silver thread in the chambers pulled tight.

The girl inside opened her mouth.

This time, her voice came through the glass.

"Lena."

I stopped.

Cade grabbed my wrist. His breath hit my ear, hot and urgent.

"Don't touch the core. That voice is—"