"Put the ring on her, Rook. If she refuses, her brother dies before sunset."
The judge's voice cracked across the tribunal.
Every head turned toward me.
I stood inside the silver seal with iron cuffs biting into my wrists. Across the circle, Carson Rook held a black ring between two gloved fingers.
The city's enforcement chief looked perfectly calm in his black uniform.
I laughed once. Dry. Ugly.
"That's your marriage proposal?" I asked. "A death threat with witnesses?"
His gray eyes stayed on mine. "It's the only proposal you're getting."
A few council members shifted. Someone whispered my name from the back row.
Mercer the saboteur.
The engineer who cracked the east shield.
The traitor whose brother helped the rebels.
I heard every word.
"You dragged me into a public tribunal," I said. "You accused me of destroying half the city. Now you want to marry me?"
"I want you alive long enough to repair what you broke."
"I didn't break the shield."
Carson pulled off one glove. Finger by finger.
"Then you shouldn't be afraid of a contract."
"I'm afraid of your contracts. People sign them and lose their homes, their names, their children."
"No children are involved."
"Not yet. Give your council another minute."
The judge slammed his metal rod against the bench.
"Ivy Mercer, you're in no position to make jokes. Your brother is being held under emergency treason law. His execution has been delayed only because Commander Rook offered an alternative."
My stomach twisted.
I kept my chin up.
"Noah is nineteen," I said. "He hasn't even been convicted."
"He was found inside a rebel relay station with stolen shield maps."
"He was trying to stop the collapse."
Carson's mouth tightened. "Your brother was carrying a detonator."
"He was carrying evidence. You never let him speak."
"He can speak at his trial. If he lives that long."
I stepped toward him.
The silver lines flashed beneath my boots. Pain shot up my legs and locked my knees. I caught myself before I hit the floor.
Carson watched me struggle.
"You did that," I snapped.
"The tribunal seal did."
"You ordered it."
"I ordered the seal because you tried to run twice."
"You arrested me in my own workshop. You put a blade to my throat. What did you expect? That I'd offer you tea?"
A murmur rolled through the hall.
Carson's eyes dropped to my throat.
Two nights ago, his fingers had left a faint bruise there. He saw it now. His jaw flexed once.
Then he held out the ring.
"Sign the marriage contract," he said. "Noah's sentence is suspended for sixty days. You repair the city shield under my authority. When the shield is stable, I release him."
"And if I refuse?"
His hand lowered.
"The execution order moves forward."
"You can't threaten me into marrying you and call it a choice."
"I never called it a choice."
That hit harder than it should've.
Maybe because he said it without shame.
Maybe because everyone in the hall could see exactly who held the knife.
I looked toward the council bench. Not one of them met my eyes.
"Show me the full contract," I said.
Carson reached inside his coat and pulled out a thin black folder. He set it on the table beside the seal.
"Read it."
"Here? In front of them?"
"You wanted witnesses."
"I want witnesses to see what kind of man you are."
"They already know."
The corner of his mouth moved.
Not a smile. Carson didn't smile at people. He used his face like a locked door.
I hated that I noticed the shape of his mouth anyway.
He opened the folder. The pages slid beneath the tribunal's glass light, covered in legal ink and ward marks.
"Clause one," he said. "Marriage between Ivy Mercer and Carson Rook begins when the ring is placed. It lasts sixty days."
"Clause two?"
"You work under my authority on all shield repairs."
"So you can take credit when I save your city."
"So you don't run when the next section collapses."
"Clause three?"
His eyes lifted to mine. "You live in my residence until the contract ends."
A sharp laugh escaped me.
"Absolutely not."
"Then your brother's sentence stays active."
"You're enjoying this."
"No."
"Liar."
Carson moved closer to the edge of the seal.
Close enough for me to feel the heat coming off him. Leather. Metal. Bitter coffee clinging to his clothes from another night of interrogations.
"You think I wanted this?" he asked, his voice lower now.
"You built your career on ruining people like me. Why stop now?"
"Because the shield is failing."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one that keeps people alive."
"You don't care who lives. You care who obeys."
His eyes sharpened. "You should be careful."
"Why? You'll arrest me again?"
"I can do worse."
The words landed between us.
Low. Rough.
His fingers tightened around the ring.
I should've stepped back. The seal held my legs in place, but lifting my chin was still my choice.
So I did.
"Threaten me all you want," I said. "You don't get to touch me unless I agree."
Carson's eyes dropped to my mouth.
For one hot second, neither of us moved.
Then he looked back at me.
"The contract requires one public kiss."
The room went silent.
Heat climbed my neck. Not from embarrassment.
From the way his voice changed when he said it.
"No."
"It's part of the binding ceremony."
"Remove it."
"I can't."
"You wrote the contract."
"The council wrote the ceremony."
"Then let them kiss you."
A councilman coughed into his sleeve.
Carson didn't look away from me.
"You can refuse the kiss," he said. "You can refuse the ring. You can refuse the contract."
"And Noah dies. Yeah. I understand the brilliant legal structure."
"You understand the terms. That's enough."
I bent toward the folder as far as the seal allowed.
The first three pages were visible. The fourth had been covered by a strip of black ward paper.
My pulse jumped.
"What's under that?"
Carson's hand came down over the page before I could reach it.
"Nothing relevant to your decision."
"Then show it to me."
"No."
"You said it was the full contract."
"The full contract will be available after you sign."
"That's not how consent works."
His stare went flat.
"You lost the right to lecture me about consent when you sabotaged the east tower."
The accusation slammed into the room.
I turned toward the council.
"I didn't sabotage the tower. The repair logs were changed after I was arrested."
"Your signature was on them," Carson said.
"Forged."
"Your ward key opened the control chamber."
"Stolen."
"Your brother was found with the maps."
"Placed there."
"You expect anyone to believe all of that?"
"I expect you to investigate instead of dragging me into a marriage trap."
"I investigated."
"Then you're either blind or corrupt."
Several council members gasped.
Carson stepped across the boundary of the seal.
The silver lines flared beneath his boots, but they didn't reject him. Of course they didn't. He owned the tribunal's ward system.
He stopped inches away.
His bare hand closed around my wrist.
I sucked in a breath.
His palm was hot against my skin. The iron cuff pressed into my bones as he turned my hand upward.
"Take your hand off me."
"You want the contract?"
"I want the full contract."
"You want Noah alive."
"Don't use his name like you own him."
"I own the order keeping him alive."
His thumb brushed over the inside of my wrist, right on top of my racing pulse.
It wasn't gentle.
It wasn't cruel, either.
That almost made it worse.
"Put the ring on me yourself," I said. "At least pretend this is my decision."
Something dark tightened behind his eyes.
"You want to make a show of it?"
"You already made a show of everything else."
Carson lifted the ring.
The black metal touched my skin. Cold enough to sting.
I pulled against his grip.
"Don't."
"Ivy."
"I said don't you dare."
The judge rose from his bench.
"Commander, complete the binding."
"Noah first," I said. "Bring him here. Let me see that he's alive."
The judge's face hardened.
"You don't set terms."
Carson's grip tightened around my wrist. The ring hovered over my finger while the silver seal burned beneath my feet.
I looked straight into his cold gray eyes.
"Then tell me where my brother is, or I'll—"