Chapter 6 · The Debt She Paid

"Don't touch it!" Mira clamped a hand around Ivy's wrist before her fingers reached the memory shard.

"Let go."

"Not unless you're ready to lose something."

Ivy twisted hard. Mira had always been quick, but Ivy had never been this furious. Her shoulder slammed into the iron door. The chain linking her wrist to Cade's snapped tight and dragged him half a step forward.

Cade caught the back of Ivy's coat.

"Stop."

"Tell her to let go."

"Mira. Release her."

Mira's grip tightened. "You don't give orders in my market."

Cade leaned in. His breath brushed the side of Ivy's face—warm, steady, infuriatingly calm.

"I give orders anywhere your people are pointing knives at my girl."

Ivy drove her elbow backward.

Cade caught it before it landed. His palm closed around her forearm, heat cutting through her sleeve. The chain between them flashed with a thin red line.

"Your girl?" Ivy hissed. "Say that again and I'll break your nose."

"Try it after we get out alive."

"How generous."

Across the narrow room, Mira raised the shard between two fingers.

It was no bigger than a sliver of glass, but light moved inside it. Not reflected light. A trapped scene.