"You can't execute me until you check the chip."
My wrists were locked behind a steel chair. Every camera on the kill floor pointed straight at my face.
Warden Lucas Vale stood three feet away in his black command coat. Clean boots. Clean hands. Not a single mark from the raid that had dragged me through six city blocks and smashed my cheek against the pavement.
His eyes dropped to the chip between my bloody fingers.
Then to the blood sliding down my palm.
"You had all night to give us evidence," he said. "You chose a performance."
"I chose to stay alive. There's a difference."
Above us, the public-feed screens flashed my name and the charges beneath it.
**EVELYN VOSS.** **TERRORIST. SABOTEUR. MURDER SUSPECT.**
Rookhaven's sealed districts were watching. Their comments poured across the screens. Cheers. Threats. Little red hearts pulsing beside my execution like this was entertainment.
Lucas turned toward the console.
"Don't."
He stopped, but he didn't look back. "You don't give orders here."
"No. You do." I pulled against the restraints until the steel cut into my wrists. "That's why I'm begging you to use your brain before you kill me."
A few guards laughed behind their masks.
Lucas's jaw tightened.
There. The first crack in that perfect control.
I leaned toward the cameras. "Go ahead. Laugh it up. Your warden is about to execute the only person carrying evidence tied to Ward Nine."
The laughter died fast.
Lucas finally faced me. "You're not the only witness."
"Then name the others."
His mouth shut.
I smiled through my split lip. "That's what I thought."
One of the guards stepped closer. "Warden, she's stalling."
"I know what she's doing," Lucas said.
"Do you?" I asked. "Your people searched me twice and missed the chip. That makes you careless or dirty. Which one should I tell the cameras?"
His pale gray eyes cut into mine.
Anger flashed there. Hot. Sharp. Close enough to feel, even with several feet between us.
"Careful, Voss."
"You dragged me in bleeding and put me on a live execution feed. I think careful left the building."
Lucas crossed the floor.
The guards shifted with him, hands moving toward their weapons. He raised one finger.
They froze.
He crouched in front of my chair. His knee brushed mine through my torn black pants.
The contact lasted less than a second.
My body noticed him before my mind did. Heat climbed my leg, quick and unwanted.
I hated that he saw my breath catch.
Lucas leaned close. His breath touched my cheek, warm and clean against the sharp smell of metal and blood.
"Open your hand," he said.
"Say please."
"You're restrained, under sentence, and surrounded by armed wardens." His fingers closed around my wrist. "Don't confuse my patience with a negotiation."
"Don't confuse your badge with a personality."
His grip tightened.
Not enough to bruise. Enough to remind me he could.
His thumb pressed against my pulse, counting every frantic beat beneath my skin.
Lucas looked down at my mouth.
Only for a second.
Then his eyes came back to mine.
"You're scared," he murmured.
"You're touching me in front of half the city." I lifted my chin. "I'm offended, not scared."
His thumb stopped moving.
The cameras caught the pause. I knew they did. So did he.
He released me.
Cold rushed into the place his hand had covered.
"Give me the chip."
"If I give it to you, your techs will wipe it before you see what's on it."
"You think my command is corrupt?"
"I think somebody murdered your sister and buried the evidence under a terrorist charge." I closed my fingers around the chip. Its edge bit into my palm. "You tell me."
The kill floor went silent.
Even the public feed seemed to hold its breath.
Lucas's face went blank.
That scared me more than the gunmetal ceiling, the cameras, or the execution rig humming behind my chair.
He stood. "Take the chip from her."
A guard moved in.
I jerked against the restraints. Pain tore up both arms.
"Touch me and I'll bite through the damn thing."
The guard glanced at Lucas. "She's bluffing."
"Try me," I snapped.
A comment burst across the nearest screen.
**KILL HER ALREADY.**
Another followed.
**MARA VALE DESERVED BETTER.**
Lucas saw it.
His eyes hardened.
"Everyone back."
The guard hesitated. "Warden—"
"I said back."
They obeyed at once.
That was what people forgot when they called Lucas Vale a loyal soldier. Men didn't move because they respected him. They moved because disobeying him cost blood, rank, or both.
He turned back to me and held out his hand.
"Give it to me."
"No."
"Evelyn."
My name sounded different in his mouth. Lower. Rougher.
Not a charge.
Not quite a command.
A warning.
I leaned forward as far as the restraints allowed. The chair dug into my spine. Blood slid over my knuckles.
"You want the city to watch you kill me? Fine." I lifted the chip between us. "But first, you look at the evidence yourself. No techs. No guards. No convenient accident."
"You don't set the terms here."
"Then execute me."
His fingers curled once at his side.
I saw it. So did the cameras.
"You think I won't?"
"I think you need to know what happened to Mara more than you need to look loyal."
His jaw flexed. "Don't use her name to buy yourself another minute."
"Then stop staring at the chip like it just bit you."
He stepped closer.
The space between his knees and mine disappeared. His coat brushed my thigh. Heat rolled off him, trapped beneath black wool and sharp metal.
"You have no idea what you're talking about," he said.
"I know Ward Nine. I know the victims were marked before they died. I know the mark on this chip matches the one burned into your sister's case file."
His eyes locked on mine.
"How do you know what's in her file?"
There it was.
The question he should've asked first.
I smiled, though my split lip pulled painfully. "Because I was there."
Nobody moved.
Lucas's breathing changed. Just once.
"Where?" he demanded.
"Open the chip."
"Answer me."
"You first. Are you going to let them kill me before you see it?"
The execution console gave a warning beep.
A red line lit across the floor beneath my chair.
The public feed erupted. Comments flooded the screens too fast to read.
Lucas turned toward the console. "How long?"
"Thirty seconds," a technician called.
"Cancel it."
The technician froze. "The sentence is already live."
"I said cancel it."
"I can't override—"
"Then cut the feed."
"Warden, the districts are watching."
Lucas spun on him. "Cut. The. Feed."
The technician's hand hovered over the controls.
I watched Lucas's back. His shoulders were tight beneath the black coat.
He was choosing me over the cameras.
Or choosing Mara over the law.
Either way, the city was about to watch Lucas Vale break.
"Lucas."
He looked over his shoulder.
"If you cut the feed, they bury this with me."
His gaze dropped to the chip. "And if I don't?"
"You get one chance to find out who killed your sister."
"You expect me to trust you?"
"No." I lifted my bleeding hand. "I expect you to trust your own eyes."
The technician swallowed. "Ten seconds."
Lucas came back to me.
This time, he didn't crouch. He stood over my chair, close enough for his coat to graze my shoulder. Heat pressed along my side. His breath moved over my hair when he bent toward me.
His hand reached for mine.
I pulled the chip back.
"Say please," I whispered.
His eyes held mine.
"Evelyn, don't make me—"
The chip flashed once between my fingers.
Lucas saw the symbol burned across its surface.
His face changed.
"Where did you get that?"