“Get off me, Lena.”
Cade caught her wrist before her fingers touched the black iron door.
His grip hurt. His eyes hurt worse.
They weren’t empty this time. They were locked on her, sharp and focused, like she was the target painted on an execution wall.
“Let go.” Lena twisted against him.
“You heard the order.”
“I heard you trying to cut your own throat five minutes ago. I’m not taking orders from you.”
His jaw tightened. “You kissed me to break the command.”
“That was tactical.”
“You put your mouth on mine.”
“And you’re welcome.”
The tunnel shook.
Cold water slapped against Lena’s boots, numbing her toes. Behind Cade, red collection sigils crawled over the walls, hunting for heat, blood, and a living spirit to drag back to Evelyn Shaw’s institute.
Cade shoved Lena against the door.
The iron slammed into her back. His body blocked the tunnel, broad and bleeding through his torn coat. His injured shoulder was soaked dark. Every breath scraped through his teeth, but his hand stayed locked around her wrist.
The sigils crept closer.
“Move,” Lena said.
“Tell me what the lock said.”
“Not here.”
“Tell me now.”
“You want the short version?” She lifted her chin. “Your name opened my power. My voice told me to keep you alive. Then another voice told me not to let you reach Night Nine. Happy?”
His fingers tightened. “You left out the part where it called me a key.”
“I didn’t leave it out.”
“You stopped talking.”
“Because the tunnel started flooding and the institute sent half its guard force after us.”
“That’s not why.”
Cade leaned closer.
Wet hair hung over his forehead. Water slid down his cheek and vanished beneath his collar. His breath brushed her mouth, warm against the freezing air.
Lena hated that she noticed.
She hated more that he noticed her noticing.
“What are you hiding?” he asked.
“Your charming personality.”
“Try again.”
“Your blood is running down my hand.”
His gaze dropped.
The blood pact had joined them at the skin. A thin red line ran from the cut in Lena’s palm across her hand and disappeared beneath Cade’s sleeve.
It pulsed once.
Cade went still.
“The third lock,” he said.
Lena looked past him.
The door had no handle. No hinges. Only three circles carved into the iron. The first two were cracked open, their spell patterns glowing under the rust.
The third was dark.
At its center sat a human handprint.
Fresh blood gleamed in the grooves.
“Someone already tried it,” Cade said.
“No.” Lena pulled against his grip. “The lock tried them.”
A scream ripped through the tunnel bend.
Then another.
The institute guards were close.
Cade released her and drew his execution blade. His hand shook once before he forced it steady.
“You stay behind me.”
“That’s cute.”
“Lena.”
“Don’t use that voice.”
“What voice?”
“The one you use when you think I’m about to disobey you.”
“You are about to disobey me.”
“I’m about to open the door.”
“You don’t know what’s on the other side.”
“I know what’s behind us. That’s enough.”
He stepped between her and the handprint.
“Cade.”
“No.”
“You can barely stand.”
“I can still kill three guards.”
“Four.”
His eyes cut toward her. “Four?”
“The one with the chain launcher.”
“I saw him.”
“You missed the one above us.”
Cade looked up.
A chain shot from the ceiling.
Lena grabbed his coat and yanked him sideways. The hook smashed into the door where his head had been. Sparks burst across the tunnel.
“Four guards,” she said. “Now five.”
Cade cut the chain. The hook snapped free and disappeared into the black water.
“Still think I should stay behind you?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“You’re impossible.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“So are you.”
“I’m trained for it.”
“You’re trained to die on command. That’s not the same thing.”
His face hardened.
The words hit too close. She saw it in the sudden stillness of his hand.
He’d killed her eight times. She’d watched him do it. Every time, he’d followed an order.
Now the orders lived inside his head.
And she was the only person who could pull him back.
A red mark flared beneath his collar.
Cade stopped breathing.
“No,” he said.
Lena stepped toward him. “Cade?”
“Don’t.”
The mark spread across his throat in branching lines. His fingers closed around the blade.
“Look at me.”
“Back away.”
“Cade, look at me.”
“Get away from me!”
The command slammed through the tunnel.
It wasn’t his voice. It came from the walls, the water, the iron door. Every word struck Lena’s bones.
Cade raised the blade.
This time, it pointed at her.
Lena didn’t move.
His arm shook. His eyes burned with fury, but his body kept sliding into the killing stance the city had trained into him.
“Do it,” she said.
His brow pulled tight. “Don’t.”
“You’ve done it before.”
“I said get back.”
“You want me afraid?”
“Yes.”
“Then try harder.”
The blade dropped.
Lena caught his wrist with both hands. The edge stopped inches from her shoulder. Cade drove forward, using his weight to pin her against the door.
His injured side struck the iron.
He made a rough sound but didn’t stop.
“Let me go,” he growled.
“You first.”
“I can’t.”
“Then listen to me.”
“I’m listening.”
“No. You’re hearing them.”
His face hovered inches from hers. Heat rolled off his skin despite the cold. His pulse jumped beneath her fingers.
“Lena,” he said, quieter now. “If I lose control, run.”
“Absolutely not.”
“You don’t get a choice.”
“I always get a choice.”
“You’ll die.”
“So will you.”
The blade trembled between them.
Boots hit the water behind Cade.
A guard shouted, “Vale! Step away from the enforcer!”
Another yelled, “Rourke, put her down!”
Cade’s expression twisted.
The command inside the tunnel tangled with the guards’ orders. His shoulders jerked. The blade dipped, then rose again.
Lena had one clean opening.
She could shove him into the door and run. She could leave him to the command magic. She could reach the third lock before the guards surrounded her.
The warning from the second lock burned through her mind.
Keep him alive.
Don’t let him reach Night Nine.
Both commands had come from her voice.
Neither had told her why.
“Lena,” Cade said through clenched teeth. “Make the choice.”
“I am.”
She released one of his wrists.
The blade shifted closer.
Cade’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?”
“Trusting the wrong man.”
She dragged her palm across the blade.
Pain flashed white.
Blood spilled over the metal.
Cade jerked back. “What the hell?”
Lena slammed her bleeding hand onto the handprint.
The third circle woke.
Black lines raced across the iron. The door clanged like something alive had just taken a breath.
The guards rounded the bend.
“There!” one shouted. “Take them alive!”
“Not happening,” Lena said.
Cade grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down as a bolt screamed over their heads. They hit the flooded floor together. His chest pressed against her back, his arm locked across her ribs while more bolts slammed into the door.
“Move,” he said into her ear.
“I’m opening it.”
“You’re bleeding on it.”
“That’s the point.”
“Your blood is feeding the lock.”
“I noticed.”
The handprint pulled at her palm.
Not just her blood. The spell patterns under her skin too. The stolen marks she’d only just reclaimed twisted toward the lock.
It wanted all of her power.
Lena clenched her teeth.
“Break contact,” Cade said.
“Can’t.”
“Break it.”
“If I do, the door stays shut.”
“I don’t care about the door.”
“You will when those guards cut us apart.”
“I said I don’t care.”
His arm tightened around her.
The words hit harder than his grip.
Lena turned her head. His mouth hovered near her temple. She could feel his heat through their wet clothes. His heart pounded against her back.
“You’re a terrible liar,” she said.
“I’m not lying.”
“You were assigned to execute me.”
“I know.”
“You killed me eight times.”
“I know.”
“You’ll kill me again if Evelyn orders it.”
Cade went silent.
Half a second too long.
Lena looked at him.
His eyes went dark. “No.”
“That wasn’t convincing.”
“I said no.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“Because you broke the order?”
“Because I remember.”
The lock screamed.
Cade pulled her away from the door and turned her to face him. Pain shot through her palm, but she barely felt it.
“You remember?” she asked.
“Pieces.”
“Since when?”
“Since you kissed me.”
Her breath caught.
His gaze dropped to her mouth for one dangerous beat before snapping back to her eyes.
“That kiss broke more than the command,” he said.
The guards were almost on them.
Lena shoved his shoulder. “Explain later. Survive now.”
“Your hand.”
“What about it?”
“The cut’s still open.”
“Very observant.”
“Give it to me.”
She stared at him. “You want my blood?”
“I want to stop the lock from taking your power.”
“You just said you didn’t care about the door.”
“I lied.”
“Badly.”
“Lena.”
His voice dropped. Not an order this time. A warning.
She hated how quickly her body knew the difference.
Cade reached for her hand. His fingers brushed hers, rough and warm. He didn’t grab her.
He waited.
That was new.
So was the fear in his face.
“Tell me what to do,” he said.
The guards shouted behind them.
“Down on your knees!”
“Drop the blade!”
“Hands where we can see them!”
Lena kept her eyes on Cade. “Put your hand over mine.”
“Why?”
“The lock opened with your blood before.”
“You think it’ll take mine again?”
“I think it wants both of us.”
“That sounds like a terrible plan.”
“It’s the only one.”
He placed his hand over hers.
The contact snapped through her.
His palm sealed her bleeding hand against the black iron. Heat rushed into the cut. The blood pact flared between their wrists, bright red and sharp enough to make them both gasp.
Cade leaned close. “If this kills you—”
“Don’t finish that sentence.”
“If it kills you, I’m dragging you back.”
“You can’t drag me out of a lock.”
“I dragged you out of an execution block.”
“You were the one who put me there.”
“I remember that too.”
The door groaned.
Lena felt the spell pattern slide through her blood like a hooked thread. She caught it with the stolen part of her power and pulled.
The lock fought back.
Her knees buckled.
Cade caught her by the waist. “Stay with me.”
“Stop saying that.”
“Why?”
“Because it sounds like you mean it.”
“I do.”
She looked up at him.
His face was cut and wet. His mouth stayed hard, but his thumb pressed against her side like he needed proof she was still there.
The guards rounded the bend.
A woman in a gray institute coat raised her hand. Blue fire gathered around her fingers.
“Rourke,” she called. “One chance. Bring Vale to us, and the command comes off.”
Cade didn’t look back.
The woman smiled. “You want to be free of her, don’t you?”
“Shut up.”
“Vale is using you. She knows what you are.”
Lena’s blood turned cold.
Cade glanced at her.
The woman saw it and smiled wider. “She hasn’t told you?”
“Told me what?” Cade asked.
“Ask her.”
“Don’t listen,” Lena said.
“Ask her what you are.”
Blue fire snapped across the water.
Cade shoved Lena behind him. The fire struck his blade and burst into sparks. He staggered, his shoulder slamming into the door.
The woman took one step closer.
“Ask her,” she said. “Ask her why the third lock opened for your blood. Ask her why Evelyn Shaw has spent twenty years hiding the truth about—”