Chapter 17 · The Warrant Has a Loophole

"Don't touch the seal." Caelan caught Lyra's wrist before her fingers reached the black mark burning across the warrant.

The paper snapped between them like a living thing. Red lines crawled over its surface. One ran toward her hand. Another ran toward his throat.

"Let go," Lyra said.

"You break that seal, it takes your hand."

"Then stop holding me like I'm the idiot in this room."

His grip tightened. His palm was hot against her skin, too hot for a man standing in a court chamber full of winter stone. The black veins under his wrist flashed silver, then vanished beneath his cuff.

Mira stood three steps away with blood on her cheek and a brass key clenched between her fingers. The archive dome above them had gone dark after her projection burned out. Names had filled the ceiling. Hundreds of them. Erased people. Stolen identities. Dead citizens the court had decided never existed.

Now the only name left on the floor was Lyra's.

And underneath it, Caelan Rook's death warrant.

"The court's seal is open," Mira said. Her voice shook, but she didn't back down. "That wasn't supposed to happen."

Lyra yanked against Caelan's hand.