"On your knees, traitor."
The guard shoved me toward the tribunal floor. My palms hit the black stone, and the completed memory shard nearly slipped from my fingers.
I closed my hand around it.
"Touch me again," I snapped, "and you'll lose that hand."
A dozen tribunal bells answered with one hard strike. The gallery erupted. Nobles leaned over the railings, hungry for another look at the woman they'd already condemned.
Calder Vane stood beneath the crown seal in his red recorder's coat. He didn't raise his voice. He never needed to.
"Mara Vale has returned with stolen crown property," he said. "She has breached a sealed archive, attacked three crown officers, and dragged the Northbreak warden into treason."
Dorian stood ten feet away, wrists bound in iron. Blood darkened the side of his shirt where the vault's ward had cut him. His eyes found mine first.
Not Calder's.
Mine.
"You said the shard was safe," he muttered.
"It was. Then your men tried to cut my throat."
"My men were following orders."
"That's your excuse?"
His jaw tightened. "It's the truth."
"Truth is having a rough day around here."
A guard yanked me upright by the back of my coat. Dorian moved before anyone else did. The chain between his wrists snapped tight, metal biting into his skin.
"Take your hand off her," he said.
The guard froze.
Calder's mouth curved. "Still protecting her? How touching."
"Don't make this about touching," I said. "You look terrible at it."
A few people in the gallery laughed. The sound died fast when Calder turned his head.
He lifted one finger. The tribunal doors slammed shut behind us.
Bolts dropped into place.
Every street gate in the city would be locking down now. Calder had planned this before we ever reached the vault.
"You have no authority to seal the capital," Dorian said.
"I have the authority of the crown's recorder."
"You have a stamp and a talent for lying."
Calder looked at the insignia pinned to Dorian's collar. "And you have worn that crown wolf for eleven years. Yet today you returned with a wanted traitor, killed crown soldiers, and refused to surrender the memory shard."
Dorian pulled once against the restraints. "Because the soldiers were ordered to execute her before a hearing."
"She has already had a hearing."
"A hearing where you presented altered records."
The gallery broke into whispers.
My fingers tightened around the shard. Its three pieces had clicked together in the vault, hot enough to burn my palm. The surface showed no writing. No crest. Nothing I could use.
But when I touched it, a woman's voice had breathed through my skull.
Find the door beneath the city.
Then the black door had opened one red eye.
I hadn't told Dorian everything. He hadn't told me why his blood had answered the shard.
We were both carrying knives behind our teeth.
Calder stepped down from the raised platform. "Give me the shard, Mara. You may still keep your life."
"You mean the life you stole?"
His face went still.
Good. I wanted the hit to land.
"I know what you did to the bloodline archives," I said. "You changed names. Burned original records. Made the city believe the heir died with the old royal house."
"You broke into a vault and touched a memory you were never meant to see. That doesn't make you an expert."
"No. It makes me the only person here who remembers what you erased."
Dorian looked at me sharply. "Mara."
"Don't." I kept my eyes on Calder. "You don't get to warn me now. Not after dragging me back here in chains."
"I didn't drag you."
"You put a blade to my throat outside the archive."
"I stopped the execution squad."
"You still had the blade there."
His gaze dropped to my mouth for half a second. Heat brushed my skin before he looked away.
The restraint chain pulled his shoulders back, forcing his chest open. Blood had soaked through the fabric near his ribs. I could smell iron from where I stood.
He had taken the vault wound for me.
I hated that my body remembered the feel of his hand around my waist when the floor split beneath us. Hated that his warmth still clung to my coat.
Calder noticed.
Of course he did.
"Warden Rusk," he said, "you've been compromised. Step away from Mara and surrender your badge."
Dorian's eyes stayed on me. "No."
The word dropped into the chamber.
Calder blinked once. "Say that again."
"No."
"You are ordered to release the prisoner."
"She isn't my prisoner."
"She's a traitor."
Dorian took one step forward. The guards raised their blades.
He didn't stop.
"Mara Vale is the heir I protect," he said.
The tribunal went silent.
My breath caught so hard it hurt.
Calder stared at him. "You know what you're saying?"
"Every word."
"You're naming a convicted traitor as the rightful heir of this city."
"I'm naming the woman whose blood opened the royal vault. The woman whose memory was cut apart and sealed. The woman you tried to erase."
The guard behind me pressed a blade beneath my jaw.
Dorian's eyes turned black with something sharper than anger.
"Move that blade," he said.
"Or what?" Calder asked. "You'll attack the tribunal? You'll prove every charge against you?"
Dorian reached up with bound hands and tore the crown wolf from his collar.
The metal ripped through the cloth. A thin line of blood appeared beneath his throat.
He threw the insignia onto the floor.
"There," he said. "Now I'm not wearing your crown."
The gallery exploded.
"Dorian," I whispered.
He looked at me then. Really looked.
"You wanted your life back," he said. "Start by taking your name."
My chest tightened. "Why did you hide it from me?"
His expression shifted, not softening. Dorian didn't do soft. But something raw moved behind his eyes.
"Because you were safer not knowing."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you're getting in front of them."
"You don't get to decide what I can survive."
"I know."
"Then tell me why."
His mouth opened.
Calder slammed both hands onto the tribunal table.
The floor cracked beneath our feet.
The shard in my palm burned.
A black line raced across its surface, forming a crown split down the middle. The same mark flared over Dorian's chest beneath his shirt. He bent with a sharp breath, one hand pressing against his ribs.
I moved toward him.
The guard's blade dug deeper into my neck.
"Don't," Calder warned.
"Get your weapon off her," Dorian growled.
"You still think you can give orders?"
Calder reached inside his coat and pulled out a thin strip of silver glass.
The last memory seal.
My stomach dropped.
"No," I said.
He smiled. "You recognize it."
"Put it down."
"Your mother hid this one well. She left the rest of her oath inside your mind, but she made certain no one could reach it without a living heir."
Dorian went rigid. "Calder, don't touch that seal."
"Why? Afraid of what she buried?"
"I'm warning you."
"You warned me when you still wore the crown. Look how much good it did you."
Calder snapped the silver glass between his fingers.
Pain tore through my skull.
I screamed and dropped the shard. It struck the floor but didn't break. A woman's voice crashed through me, louder now, terrified and close.
Mara, listen to me. If they find the oath, they will use his heart—
The memory cut off.
Dorian staggered. A dark mark spread from beneath his collar, crawling toward his throat like ink under skin.
His eyes locked on mine.
"Don't come closer," he said.
"You're hurt."
"Mara, don't."
"Calder is doing this to you."
"I know what he's doing."
The mark reached the center of his chest. Dorian dropped to one knee, his bound hands braced against the stone.
I lunged anyway.
The guard caught my arm. Dorian roared, and every torch in the chamber flared blue.
Calder lifted the broken seal. "There it is. The oath has chosen its anchor."
"What oath?" I shouted.
"Your mother's. The one that can wake the army beneath this city."
The gallery screamed.
Dorian forced himself upright. Sweat ran down his temple. His breathing came rough and fast.
"Mara," he said, "listen to me. If you pull the memory back, the oath will finish crossing into me."
"And if I don't?"
Calder stepped closer, silver glass shining between his fingers. "You lose the truth about your mother forever. He keeps the mark. By sunrise, it will reach his heart."
Dorian's gaze dropped to the shard on the floor.
"Don't choose me," he said.
I stared at him. "You just named me heir in front of the whole city."
"That was before I knew the price."
"You don't get to throw yourself away and call it protection."
His laugh came out broken. "You really don't know when to stop fighting."
"You really don't know when to stop lying."
Calder pressed the silver seal against my palm.
The memory opened.
A woman stood behind the black door. Her face was hidden, but I knew the shape of her hands. I knew the sound of her voice.
My mother.
She held a knife against Dorian's chest.
No—not Dorian. A younger man with the same eyes.
The oath whispered through my bones.
Kill the warden, and remember.
Save the warden, and forget.
Calder leaned close to my ear.
"Choose, Mara. Take back your mother's oath—or kill Dorian before it takes his heart..."