Chapter 10 · I need your confession

"I need your confession."

"Same problem."

For a beat, nobody moved.

Then Cael pulled Lia away from the shelf and dragged her toward the witness plate.

"Walk," he said.

"I have legs."

"Use them."

His hand remained around her wrist. His thumb rested over her pulse as if he could feel every lie before she spoke it.

Sable was forced to kneel beside the door. A warden kept the knife at her neck.

"Lia," Sable said, "the plate is wired to the city registry. If it accepts Rowan's version, every contract house will hunt you."

"I know."

"If it rejects you, they'll kill us both."

"I know that too."

Cael shoved her hand toward the black metal plate.

"Don't," he said quietly.

Lia looked at him. "You just told me to walk."

"I told you to walk. I didn't tell you to touch it."

"You want proof."

"Not his proof."

Rowan stepped closer. "This is not a negotiation."

"Everything is a negotiation," Lia said. "You just brought more knives."

She slapped her palm onto the plate.

Cold shot up her arm.

The archive lights flared blue. Symbols spilled across the walls, bright and fast. Old contracts woke in their boxes.