Chapter 23 · The Aristocrat’s Entry Fee

The floor vanished beneath them.

Nora hit stone hard enough to bite her tongue. Kane’s hand locked around hers before gravity could separate them, and the contract’s invisible leash yanked tight between their bodies. Six feet. No farther. No mercy.

They dropped through a shaft of red emergency light while alarms screamed above and below. Wind tore Nora’s hair across her face. Somewhere in the darkness, Beckett swore with theatrical creativity.

“Tell me,” he shouted, “that this is the efficient route!”

“It’s not!” Nora shouted back.

“Excellent! I hate efficient routes!”

A blue-white flare exploded beneath them.

Nora saw the arena.

It lay at the center of the underground city like a metal flower forced open by a blade. Tier upon tier of balconies curved around a circular platform. Arcane cables webbed the walls, pulsing with captured lightning. Above the arena, iron gates slammed shut one after another as black-uniformed Execution Bureau officers flooded the access bridges.

The blockade had already begun.

Kane twisted in midair. His coat snapped around him, and thunder crawled over his knuckles. “Brace.”

“That is not a plan.”

“It’s the part before the plan.