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"Get up, Mara. If you can scream, you can move."
Calder's hand locked around my wrist and dragged me through the shattered back door before I could argue. My left shoulder burned like someone had jammed a hot nail under the bone. His right shoulder was bleeding through his coat. Every step he took punched the same pain into me.
"You got shot," I snapped.
"You noticed."
"I noticed when my arm started leaking." I stumbled, caught myself on the brick wall, and nearly went down. "Slow down, executioner."
Calder stopped so fast I slammed into his back. He turned, caught my waist, and held me upright. His palm was hot through my shirt. His face stayed hard, but his eyes dropped to my mouth for half a second before climbing back to mine.
"Call me that again," he said, "and I carry you."
"Try it and lose the other shoulder."
"You can barely stand."
"I can still bite."
His fingers tightened once at my waist. Not enough to hurt. Enough to remind me that he could pin me against the wall if he wanted.
Behind us, boots hit the alley.
"Save the flirting for when we're not being hunted," I said.
His jaw flexed. "That wasn't flirting."
"Sure. Your hand on my waist was a tactical decision."
"It was." He pulled me forward again. "The tactical decision is keeping you alive until Nia cuts this bond."
A black bolt punched through the brick beside my head.
Calder shoved me down. The bolt cracked against the wall, throwing dust into my eyes. He dropped beside me, one knee in the mud, and drew the short blade from his belt.
"Move when I tell you," he said.
"I don't take orders from men who get themselves shot."
"You took the bullet with me."
That shut me up for exactly one breath.
The pain in my shoulder pulsed. Calder's wound pulsed with it. Two bodies. One injury. One very bad deal.
"Go," he said.
He rose and threw the blade.
Someone screamed at the mouth of the alley. A body hit the pavement.
Calder grabbed my hand and ran.
I hated that his grip steadied me. I hated that I had to match my steps to his. I hated the way his thumb pressed against my pulse like he was checking whether I still belonged to the living.
Most of all, I hated that he knew exactly how much pain I could take.
"Three blocks," he said. "Can you make three blocks?"
"I made it through a contract hit and a squad of executioners. Three blocks sounds adorable."
"Keep talking."
"Why? Does my voice make you run faster?"
"It tells me when you're about to collapse."
"Then listen closely. I'm about to collapse on purpose, right on your foot."
A second bolt scraped Calder's coat. He twisted, put his body between me and the alley, and fired the compact pistol tucked beneath his sleeve.
The shot cracked through the narrow street.
The hunters ducked back.
"You had a gun?" I shouted.
"You had stolen seconds."
"Mine was useful."
"So is mine."
He hauled me around a corner and shoved open a warped metal door. A small brass gear hung above it, split down the middle. Calder dragged me inside, kicked the door shut, and dropped the bar into place.
Something slammed against the other side almost at once.
"That won't hold," I said.
"It only has to hold until midnight."
"That's not reassuring."
"It wasn't meant to be."
A woman stepped out from behind a wall of hanging clocks. She had a wrench in one hand and a knife in the other. Her dark hair was tied up with copper wire, and a pair of cracked magnifying lenses sat on her forehead.
"Mara," Nia said. "Why did you bring the city's favorite butcher to my shop?"
Calder lifted his pistol.
Nia raised the wrench. "Point that somewhere else, Rook. I can make your hand forget how fingers work."
"Try it."
"Both of you, shut up," I said. "We're bleeding on her floor."
Nia's eyes snapped to my shoulder. Then to Calder's.
Her expression changed.
"Oh, hell," she whispered. "You did it."
"I didn't do anything," I said.
"You stole time from him."
"I stole eleven seconds from the bullet."
"Same difference." Nia crossed the room fast. She grabbed my chin and turned my face toward the lamp. "Show me your wrist."
I pulled away. "No."
"Mara."
"No."
Calder caught my arm before I could step back. His blood-warm fingers closed around my wrist. He turned it palm-up.
The mark beneath my skin had spread since the alley. Thin black lines circled my wrist like a chain. One link glowed dull red every time Calder breathed through his pain.
Nia went still.
"That isn't a standard life bond," she said.
Calder's voice dropped. "Cut it."
"I need to see the wound."
"Cut it first."
Nia looked at him as if he had just asked her to repair a clock by throwing it off a roof. "If I cut the wrong strand, the bond will finish what the bullet started."
"Then don't cut the wrong strand."
"That's your plan? Be terrifying until physics changes?"
"It has worked before."
"Not on me."
The door shook again. Metal shrieked under a heavy impact.
Nia pointed at the back room. "Move. Now. I can keep the hunters out for maybe six minutes. If the street ward wakes up, I get three."
"You said midnight," I said.
"Midnight is eleven minutes away. The reset starts then."
Calder shoved me toward the back room. "What reset?"
Nia glared at him. "You really don't know?"
"Tell me while you work."
"The district forgets what happened every thirteen nights. People lose names, debts, crimes, faces. Sometimes buildings change. Sometimes bodies don't get counted."
"And the bond?" I asked.
Nia pushed open a narrow door hidden behind a rack of pocket watches. "A contract survives a reset. People don't. That's why they use contracts."
The room behind it was barely wide enough for two people. Copper wires covered the walls. A round table sat in the center, carved with dozens of tiny clock faces. Nia shoved tools aside and pointed at the table.
"Put your hand down. Both of you."
"No," Calder said.
"You want the chain removed?"
"Yes."
"Then stop acting like the table is going to arrest you."
Calder looked at me. "If she tries anything—"
"I'll let you shoot her?" I asked. "With the arm we share? Brilliant."
His eyes narrowed.
I slapped my palm onto the table. "Do it before I change my mind."
Calder placed his hand beside mine. His knuckles brushed my fingers. The contact sent a sharp heat up my arm, followed by the familiar tug behind my ribs, as if some invisible hook had found him and was pulling us together.
I sucked in a breath.
He heard it.
"Pain?" he asked.
"No, I enjoy having my bones rearranged."
"Mara."
"Yes. Pain. Don't look so pleased."
"I'm not pleased."
"Your mouth says that. Your eyes are busy disagreeing."
For one second, neither of us moved. His face was close enough that I could feel his breath against my cheek. He smelled like gun oil, blood, and the sharp mint strip he had used after waking up. His gaze held mine, steady and too careful.
Nia snapped her fingers between us. "If you two are done trying to murder each other with eye contact, I need blood."
"Take his," I said.
"Why mine?"
"You're the executioner. You have more to spare."
Calder pulled a narrow blade from his sleeve and cut across his thumb. He pressed the blood to the center of the table.
Nia grabbed my hand before I could object and pricked my finger.
"Hey."
"You can complain after you stop dying."
She pressed my finger beside his.
The carved clocks lit up.
A line of red light ran from Calder's blood to mine. The chain under my skin tightened. My shoulder flared so hard my knees hit the table.
Calder caught me around the ribs.
"Stay up."
"Get off me."
"You said you could bite."
"I can do more than bite."
His arm stayed locked around me. "Prove it later."
The words landed low and rough. Heat touched my face before I could stop it.
Nia looked between us. "That is a terrible time to flirt."
"We're not flirting," Calder and I said together.
Nia snorted. "Sure. The dying murder pair says so."
The table clicked. A thin metal needle rose from its center and scratched symbols into the wood.
Nia bent over it. "The bond has two layers. The first is yours, Mara. You stole eleven seconds and tied yourself to his lifespan. That's ugly, but fixable."
"And the second layer?"
She stopped moving.
Calder's arm tightened around me. "Say it."
"The second layer is an anchor. It doesn't connect you to Calder's life. It connects you to the city's reset clock."
The hunters hit the door again.
Dust sifted from the ceiling.
I stared at the glowing marks. "I didn't sign that."
"No," Nia said. "You carried it in."
Calder looked at me. "Explain."
"Someone marked Mara before she touched your bullet. The mark hid under the stolen seconds. When she pulled time away, it woke up."
"Who marked her?" he demanded.
Nia's mouth tightened. "I don't know."
"Wrong answer."
He reached across me and caught Nia by the collar. The knife in her hand flashed up to his throat.
"Let go," she said.
"Tell me who put it on her."
"I said I don't know."
"Calder." My voice came out weak, but he heard it. "Let her go."
He didn't.
I grabbed the chain mark on my wrist and pulled.
Pain ripped through all three of us. Calder released Nia with a curse. I folded over the table, gasping.
"Touch her again," I said, "and I'll drag you down with me."
Calder crouched in front of me. His hand hovered near my face, then stopped short.
"You just threatened to kill yourself."
"I threatened to make your life worse. Learn the difference."
His eyes dropped to my trembling hand. "You can't control the bond."
"Neither can you. That's the part I like."
Nia rubbed her throat and moved to a cabinet. "There is one way to split the layers. But the anchor has to be paid."
"With what?" I asked.
"Years."
Calder's expression turned flat. "How many?"
"If I cut the life strand, Mara loses the eleven seconds she stole. The bullet catches up. She dies."
My fingers went cold.
"If I cut the anchor," Nia continued, "the reset takes the payment instead. It could take a month. A year. Memories. Maybe the last person you remember loving."
"You said there was a way," I said.
"There is. I didn't say it was nice."
"What if we leave the bond alone?"
"Then every wound Calder takes lands on you. Every fatal injury burns a day from your life. And when the district resets, you both stay chained while everyone else forgets you were here."
Calder rose. "We chase the reset."
I grabbed his coat. "No. We cut the bond."
He looked down at my hand gripping him. "You want to die tonight?"
"I want my life back."
"You don't have one if the bullet kills you."
"And I don't have one if every idiot with a badge can use you to carve years out of me."
"The reset may show us who built the anchor."
"Or it wipes our names and leaves us trapped in this deal forever."
"Then stay close."
His hand closed over mine, pinning it against his chest. His heartbeat hit my palm, hard and fast. The sound matched the pulse under my mark.
"You don't get to order me around," I said.
"I do if I am the only reason you are still breathing."
"You are also the reason my shoulder feels like it got hit by a carriage."
"Then keep breathing out of spite."
Nia slammed a brass box onto the table. "Enough. Choose."
The box sprang open. Inside lay a strip of black paper covered in moving numbers.
11:00.
10:59.
10:58.
"That's a countdown," I said.
"To midnight," Nia replied. "The reset is already starting."
Another impact hit the shop door. This time, the bar bent.
Calder drew his pistol and stepped between us and the hidden entrance.
"How many hunters?" I asked.
"Enough."
"That isn't a number."
"It's the only one that matters."
Nia reached under the table and pulled out three thin metal bands. "If you chase the reset, you need a memory lock. Put these on."
Calder took one. "What do they do?"
"They keep your names inside your own heads."
"And the cost?"
"They make the bond permanent until the reset ends."
I stared at the band. "You left that part out."
"You hadn't asked."
"I am asking now. Can you cut the bond after midnight?"
Nia hesitated.
Calder saw it. "Answer her."
"Maybe."
"Maybe?" I said. "That is not a word people use when they know what they're doing."
"The contract changes during a reset. I need to see what it becomes."
"So we are your experiment."
"You were already someone's experiment. I'm offering you a chance to survive it."
A blade punched through the shop door.
Nia jumped back. Calder fired. The shot blew the blade away, but a second one came through below it.
"Put on the band," he ordered.
"No."
He crossed the space in two steps. His good hand planted beside my head against the wall. The copper wires trembled behind my shoulders. He leaned in close, blocking the room, his body heat cutting through the cold sweat on my skin.
"Mara, listen to me. If you walk out without the lock, the reset can take your memories. You could forget your brother. You could forget this bond. You could forget me."
"That last part sounds like a reward."
His gaze sharpened. "You don't mean that."
"You don't know what I mean."
"I know you keep touching the mark when you think I can't see."
My breath caught.
He lowered his voice. "You are scared. So am I. Put on the band."
For once, he didn't sound like an order. That made it worse.
I took the band from his hand. The metal was warm from his skin. When I slid it over my wrist, it locked around the chain mark with a soft click.
Calder put his on.
The two bands flashed red.
The bond pulled tight between us. My fingers jerked toward him. His shoulders went rigid, and he caught my hand before it struck his chest.
"Still want to cut it?" he asked.
"More than ever."
"Good. Hate keeps you alert."
Nia shoved the third band into her pocket. "I'm coming with you."
"No," Calder said.
"You need someone who can read the clockwork."
"You need to keep the shop standing."
"The shop is already marked. If the reset takes it, every kid hiding in my walls loses their shelter. So unless you have a better idea, stop pretending you do."
Calder opened his mouth.
Nia cut him off. "No. You don't get to threaten me again. I know where the service tunnel is, and you don't."
The door groaned.
"Fine," he said. "Move."
Nia kicked open a floor panel. A narrow tunnel dropped beneath the shop, packed with pipes and old clock springs. Calder went first, then reached back for me.
"I can climb down myself," I said.
"Your shoulder says otherwise."
"My shoulder doesn't talk."
"It screams."
He caught me around the waist and lowered me into the tunnel. My boots touched the metal ladder. His face was inches from mine. The edge of his coat brushed my knees. His breath warmed my jaw.
"Put me down," I whispered.
"You are down."
"You know what I mean."
His hand stayed at my waist one second too long.
Then Nia dropped between us and shoved Calder forward. "Save the staring. The clock is winning."
We crawled through the tunnel while the shop shook above us. Twice, Calder stopped to listen. Twice, he pressed one finger to his lips and pulled me against the pipe wall, his chest nearly touching mine while boots thundered overhead.
The second time, his mouth came close to my ear.
"Don't breathe so loud."
"You're the one squeezing me."
"I'm keeping you quiet."
"Your hand is on my ribs."
"I know where my hand is."
"That's the problem."
His eyes found mine in the dark. The space between us tightened until I could feel each breath he took.
Nia whispered from ahead, "If you two start kissing in my tunnel, I will leave you here."
"We are not kissing," I said.
"You keep saying that like it is supposed to make me believe you."
Calder pulled away first. "Keep moving."
We climbed out beneath an abandoned tram platform. The city clock tower stood three streets away, its face frozen at eleven fifty-eight.
People filled the street around it.
They weren't running. They weren't talking. They stood in loose groups, staring at the tower with blank faces.
Nia went pale. "It started early."
"The reset?" I asked.
"No. The summons."
Calder lifted his pistol. "Summons for what?"
Every person on the street turned toward us at once.
My mark burned.
A bell rang from the tower.
Once.
The crowd took one step forward.
Calder grabbed my hand. "Back."
"They don't look armed."
"They don't need weapons."
A man in a butcher's apron raised his head. His eyes were gray and empty.
"Mara Venn," he said.
My stomach dropped.
A woman beside him spoke next. "Calder Rook."
Then the whole street repeated our names.
Not shouted. Not whispered.
Recorded.
Nia backed toward the tunnel entrance. "The contract is reading you."
"Can it hear us?" I asked.
"It can hear everything."
Calder stepped in front of me. "Where is the clock?"
"We have to reach the tower before the last bell."
"And if we don't?"
Nia looked at the people closing around us. "Then the city decides what you are."
The tower rang again.
Two.
The crowd moved closer.
Calder's fingers locked around mine. "Stay with me."
"You keep saying that like I have somewhere else to go."
"You do. You can run."
"And leave you to get torn apart?"
His eyes flashed. "You should."
"That sounded almost like concern."
"It was an order."
"Liar."
For the first time, his control cracked. His thumb pressed into my palm, and his mouth tightened like he wanted to say something dangerous and had decided against it.
The bell rang a third time.
Every person on the street forgot how to blink.
Nia grabbed my other arm. "When the clock strikes midnight, don't let go of him."
"Why?"
"Because the reset will erase the distance between you."
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know."
Calder pulled me toward the tower. The crowd surged. Hands reached for my coat, his sleeves, the bands around our wrists.
He shoved one man aside. The man hit the pavement, then rose without a sound.
"They're not trying to kill us," I said.
"Not yet."
"What are they trying to do?"
A child at the edge of the crowd lifted a sheet of black paper. Numbers crawled across it like insects.
11:59:11.
The countdown stopped.
Then new words appeared beneath it.
WANTED FOR UNPAID TIME.
MARA VENN.
CALDER ROOK.
Nia swore. "The contract just issued a bounty."
"To who?" I asked.
The tower rang again.
Four.
Every blank face on the street turned toward us.
This time, they smiled.
Calder shoved me behind him and raised his pistol. "Run when I fire."
"You shoot, and I take the wound."
"Then don't get shot."
"That isn't how this works."
"It is tonight."
The crowd rushed.
Calder fired once into the ground. The blast split the street. People stopped for half a second, just long enough for him to drag me through a gap.
We ran toward the tower.
The fifth bell struck.
The street lights went out.
The sixth bell struck.
Nia shouted behind us, "Mara, your mark!"
I looked down.
The black chain around my wrist had opened. One glowing link pointed straight at Calder.
"What does that mean?" I yelled.
He looked at it and went still.
"Calder?"
The seventh bell struck.
His face changed.
Not fear. Recognition.
"You knew," I said. "You knew this could happen."
"I knew the tower was involved."
"You knew the contract was looking for us."
"I didn't know it would use your name."
"Why not mine? Why not yours?"
He grabbed both my shoulders. Pain flashed through the bond, but he held on.
"Because it already owns mine."
The eighth bell struck.
Behind him, the crowd began chanting.
"Pay the debt. Pay the debt. Pay the debt."
Nia stopped beside us, breathing hard. "The last five bells will trigger the reset. We need to choose now."
"Choose what?" I asked.
"Break the bond and let the bullet finish you," she said. "Or keep it and enter the reset together."
Calder looked at me.
The ninth bell struck.
His grip slid from my shoulders to my hands. His skin was hot. His blood had soaked through his shirt, and the wound in my shoulder throbbed with every beat of his heart.
"You wanted your life back," he said.
"I still do."
"Then tell me to cut it."
"You can't cut it here."
"Tell me anyway."
The tenth bell struck.
The crowd closed in behind us. Their blank faces reflected the red light crawling over the tower.
I stared at Calder's mouth. He was close enough that one step would erase the space between us. His eyes dropped to my lips, then snapped back up.
"If we stay together," I said, "you don't get to use me as a shield."
"I won't."
"You don't get to order me into danger."
"I will if it keeps you alive."
"That isn't a promise."
"It's the only one I have."
The eleventh bell struck.
Nia grabbed the edge of my coat. "Mara, decide."
I looked at the tower. At the wanted notice still crawling across the black paper. At Calder, who had spent the entire night treating me like a weapon and was now holding my hands like they were the only things keeping him upright.
"We chase the reset," I said.
Calder's eyes hardened. "You sure?"
"No. Move."
He pulled me against him as the twelfth bell began.
The crowd reached us.
Calder wrapped one arm around my back and raised his pistol with the other. Nia ducked under his elbow and shoved a brass key into the tower gate.
The lock turned.
The gate opened one inch.
Then the thirteenth bell rang.
The sound hit the street like a physical blow.
Every person around us lifted their head.
Their eyes went empty.
Calder's arms tightened around me. My mark snapped hot, and our bands locked together with a hard metallic click.
"Don't let go," Nia screamed.
"I can't," I shouted back. "My hand won't—"
Calder stared over my shoulder at the crowd. "Mara."
"What?"
His voice dropped against my hair. "They forgot us."
The man in the butcher's apron blinked at Calder, then at me. His face held no recognition at all.
Nia stepped in front of him and waved a hand. "Who are you people?"
The man frowned. "Who are you?"
The answer spread through the street. People looked at one another, confused, frightened, suddenly strangers in their own city.
But Calder still held me.
I still knew his name.
And he still knew mine.
The clock tower gate stood open behind us. The red line on my wrist crawled past the band and formed one final message.
RESET COMPLETE.
Then a second line appeared.
NEXT DEBT DUE IN—
The numbers began to fall.
Calder saw them over my shoulder. His breath touched my ear.
"Mara, how long do we have before the city—"