Chapter 3

"You could've warned me before the ground disappeared."

"I did. You were busy trying to stab me."

"I was trying to stab you because you dragged me underground and stole my memories."

His grip tightened.

Heat pushed through his coat. The black mark on my wrist burned against the matching line circling his palm.

"Keep your hand on me," he said.

"Try ordering someone else."

"Fine. Let go and die alone."

The passage lurched again.

I grabbed his coat before I fell, my fingers twisting into the rough fabric at his shoulder.

Cade looked at my hand.

Then at me.

"That sounded like an order you understood."

"Shut up and run."

His mouth almost curved.

The next bell erased it.

The sound punched through the stone. My knees buckled. Cold sliced through my skull, and for one sick second, I forgot why I hated the man holding me.

His name slipped away.

I stared at him, breathing dust and heat. Dark hair. Gray eyes. Warden's coat. A scar through his left eyebrow.

The name should've been easy.

It wasn't there.

"What did you take?" I seized his collar. "What did you take from me?"

Cade caught both my wrists and shoved me against the tunnel wall.

Not hard enough to hurt.

Hard enough that I couldn't pull free.

His face stopped inches from mine. His breath brushed my cheek, warm and sharp with dust. The life-link between us pulled tight.

"Say my name," he said.

"I don't know it."

His jaw flexed.

"Say it."

"I said I don't know it!"

Another bell trembled somewhere far above us.

Not loud yet.

Worse than loud.

It crawled under my skin.

Cade's fingers loosened around my wrists. His thumb stayed against my pulse.

"Cade," he said. "My name is Cade."

The word hit like a slap.

Cade.

I knew it. I hated it. I'd heard it in my brother's broken memory, buried beneath the voice of a dying boy.

"Cade," I repeated. "The butcher."

His eyes went flat.

"You remember that part."

"I remember my brother calling you that. I remember your voice behind him. I remember him begging you to stop."

"You remember a damaged memory."

"Then fix it."

"I can't."

"Convenient."

A metal door slammed somewhere behind us.

Cade released me and drew the short blade from his belt. The chain between us scraped over the floor as he turned toward the sound.

"Someone followed us," I whispered.

"Not someone."

Three figures stepped through the far archway.

Black masks covered their faces. Their coats still carried the academy crest, but the silver thread had been ripped out and replaced with red cord.

One raised a crossbow.

"Ivy Morn!" the masked leader shouted. "By order of the Council, surrender the warden and the unstable mark!"

"You heard him," Cade said. "They want you."

"They want both of us."

"No. They want what's inside you. I'm just the man assigned to cut it out."

The crossbow fired.

Cade shoved me down.

The bolt struck the wall where my throat had been. Before the attacker could reload, Cade moved. He dragged me behind a support pillar with one hand and threw his blade with the other.

The masked leader dropped with a strangled grunt.

"You could've let them take me," I said.

"I considered it."

"Liar."

"You don't know my name anymore. Don't get confident."

A second bolt slammed into the pillar. Stone chips snapped against my cheek.

Cade pressed his shoulder over mine, pinning me into the narrow gap. His chest brushed my back with every breath. The life-link glowed between our wrists, thin and black.

"When I say move, you move," he murmured near my ear.

"When you say jump, I ask how far."

"You ask too many questions."

"You answer too few."

He caught my chin and turned my face toward him. His glove scraped lightly along my jaw. His gaze dropped to my black mark, then lifted to my eyes.

"There are six hunters in this tunnel," he said. "Two behind us. Four ahead. Your mark is pulling them here. If you lose control, it'll tear through everyone within reach."

"And your solution?"

"Find Mira Quill."

My stomach tightened.

"You know where she is?"

"Memory market. Below the old courthouse."

"You said the market was sealed."

"It is."

"Then how are we getting in?"

His eyes dropped to my marked wrist.

"You're getting us in."

"Of course I am."

He pushed away from the pillar and pulled me after him.

We ran as the masked hunters shouted behind us. The passage narrowed, forcing our shoulders together. Every turn jerked the chain between us. Every time I stumbled, Cade's hand closed around my waist or the back of my coat.

I hated how fast he caught me.

I hated how my body started expecting it.

"Stop dragging me!" I snapped.

"Stop falling!"

"Stop making the floor collapse!"

"That's your magic, not mine!"

Black light exploded behind us.

The hunters screamed. The wall buckled, and a wave of heat slammed down the passage.

Cade spun and hauled me against him. One arm locked across my ribs. His other hand covered my marked wrist.

The pain stopped.

Just stopped.

His pulse beat hard beneath my palm. His mouth hovered near my temple. Dust scratched my throat when I breathed.

"Don't move," he said.

"You keep saying that like I enjoy being trapped against you."

"Your mark is feeding on the link."

"Then take your hand off me."

"If I do, the next surge goes through your heart."

I looked up at him.

"You're enjoying this."

"You think I enjoy watching you die?"

The words came out rough.

Too real.

For half a second, neither of us moved. His heat soaked through my coat. His eyes stayed on mine, and the chain gave a tiny, painful tug between us.

I shoved his chest.

"Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like I'm something you have to save."

"You're not something. You're a problem."

"There you are."

He released me, but his fingers dragged over mine before the chain pulled our wrists apart.

At the end of the passage, a rusted service hatch waited beneath a cracked courthouse seal.

I slammed my palm against it.

The black mark flared.

A voice whispered from the other side.

"Password."

"Mira," I said. "Open the door."

"That's not a password."

"It's your name."

"And you're still terrible at charming people."

My throat tightened.

I knew that voice. I hadn't heard it in four years, but I knew the lazy drawl. The tiny pause before every insult.

"Mira," I said. "Open the damn door."

"Who's with you?"

Cade stepped beside me, blade in hand.

"The warden," I said.

Silence.

Then Mira laughed once.

There wasn't a trace of humor in it.

"You brought Cade Rourke to my door? Ivy, did the academy finally remove your brain along with your license?"

"Open it, or the hunters get here first."

"They already got here."

The hatch opened three inches.

A pair of sharp brown eyes appeared in the gap. Mira's hair was short now, one side shaved close. A brass memory charm hung from her ear and tapped softly against the metal.

Her eyes dropped to Cade's hand.

Then to the chain joining us.

"Oh," she said. "That's ugly."

"You can insult it after you let us in."

"I can insult it now."

"Mira."

Her expression changed at the sound of my voice. Just a tiny shift. A stiff mouth. A quick glance away.

"You shouldn't have come here."

"You shouldn't have sold me to the academy. Yet here we are."

Cade's head turned toward me.

"She sold you out?"

"Don't start."

"I haven't started anything."

Mira opened the hatch wider.

"Get inside before your warden makes a speech."

Cade entered first, dragging me after him.

The moment we crossed the threshold, Mira slammed the hatch and threw three locks. Her fingers moved fast. Too fast for someone who wasn't scared.

The room beyond was packed with shelves, glass jars, copper wires, and hundreds of thin memory chips suspended in blue fluid.

Voices murmured from the chips.

Some laughed.

Some cried.

One whispered a child's counting rhyme until Mira smashed the jar with her elbow.

"Don't listen to them," she said. "They listen back."

"Where are the children?" I asked.

"Safe."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one you're getting while the warden is here."

Cade stepped closer.

"You have a stolen memory belonging to Ivy's brother."

Mira's face went still.

"Who told you that?"

"You just did."

"I didn't say anything."

"You looked at her like you did."

Mira reached beneath her coat and pulled out a thin silver knife.

Cade's blade rose at once.

"Put it down," he said.

"Make me."

The air tightened between them.

Cade moved first. He caught Mira's wrist and twisted it behind her back. She hissed, but her free hand snapped toward a shelf.

I saw the jar before she touched it.

A black chip floated inside. Its surface pulsed like a tiny heartbeat.

"Mira," I said. "Don't."

"You don't get to tell me what to do."

"You sold me once. Don't make me regret coming back."

Her eyes flashed.

"You think I sold you because I wanted coin?"

"I think you pointed academy hunters at my door. I think they took my license, my apartment, and my brother. What part did I misunderstand?"

Cade tightened his hold on her.

"Answer her."

Mira looked over her shoulder at him.

"Take your hand off me, butcher."

The word silenced the room.

Cade's grip froze.

I watched his face. No anger. No denial. Just that cold control sliding into place.

"Everyone calls you that," I said. "Why?"

"Because people like simple names."

"That's not an answer."

"You have one memory fragment and a market full of frightened thieves. Don't build a trial out of scraps."

Mira jerked free when Cade let her go. She rubbed her wrist and glared at him.

"He did it," she said.

My pulse kicked.

"Did what?"

"Your brother's memory. He erased it."

Cade stepped between us.

"Mira. Stop talking."

"Why? Afraid she'll remember the rest?"

"I said stop."

"You don't command me down here."

"I can shut this entire market down."

Mira lifted her chin.

"And the kids go where? Back to the streets? Into Council custody? Go ahead, Warden. Burn the door. Prove every rumor right."

Cade's hand went to the chain.

I grabbed his sleeve.

"Don't."

His gaze dropped to my fingers.

"She's protecting the market by using you."

"And you're protecting me by threatening everyone she has left. Both of you are exhausting."

Mira gave a bitter laugh.

"There she is. I wondered if the link had scraped all the fight out of you."

"You knew this would happen?"

"I knew the bells were moving. I didn't know you'd get chained to the man who started the first purge."

Cade's voice went dangerously quiet.

"I did not start the purge."

"You carried out the orders."

"I was sixteen."

Mira blinked.

I stared at him.

"You were sixteen?"

"Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you found a crack."

"Maybe I did."

His eyes held mine.

The room suddenly felt too small. His knuckles brushed my wrist as the link shifted. Warm skin. A careful touch.

He pulled away first.

Mira watched us and shook her head.

"This is worse than I thought."

"Give me the chip," I said.

"No."

"Mira."

"You want the last memory because you think it'll tell you where your brother went. It won't. It'll show you what he wanted hidden."

"Then let me see it."

"The chip bites."

"So do I."

"You always talked big when you were scared."

I stepped close enough for our boots to touch.

"You sold me out to save the market kids, didn't you?"

Mira's mouth opened.

Nothing came out.

Cade looked at her.

"Answer."

"The academy found the market. They had names. Faces. They were going to take every child who could hold a memory."

"So you gave them Ivy," Cade said.

"I gave them the girl they already wanted."

My fingers curled.

"You gave them my brother, too."

"No."

"Don't lie to me."

"I didn't give them Rowan. I tried to hide him."

The name hit harder than the bell.

Rowan.

My brother's name. The one thing the link hadn't taken yet.

Mira reached for the black chip, and—