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"Take your hand off the door." Cade caught my wrist before my fingers touched the black metal. "Unless you want the vault to take something else."
"You say that like I have anything left to lose." I twisted hard. His grip tightened.
The buried clock vault had already taken Nora's brother's name, three hours from Cade's childhood, and the face of the guard we'd left bleeding beside the rails. It had started with small things. A song. A street. The reason a person had walked into a room.
Now the door was whispering in my head.
Not words. Not exactly.
A little girl's laugh. A red scarf. A hand slipping out of mine.
I knew that laugh.
I just couldn't remember who it belonged to.
"Evelyn." Cade stepped between me and the door. His shoulder blocked the narrow passage, his coat brushing mine. "Look at me."
"Move."
"No."
"You don't get to order me around because you wear a badge."
"I get to order you around because that door is hungry, and you're standing closest to it."
His voice stayed low. Calm. Too calm for a man who had just forgotten the color of his own mother's eyes.
I shoved his chest.
He barely moved. The hard line of his body gave under my palm, then came right back. Heat pushed through his shirt. His hand closed around my wrist again, thumb pressed against my pulse.
"Touch me again," I said, "and I'll break that hand."
"You tried that two minutes ago."
"Then stop making me repeat myself."
His eyes dropped to my mouth for half a second.
I noticed.
He noticed me noticing.
The passage felt too narrow after that.
Cade leaned closer, close enough that I felt his breath brush my cheek. "You want to fight me, fine. But fight me away from the door."
"You think you're in charge because you can pin me to a wall?"
"I think I'm in charge because you're about to forget why you came down here."
The answer hit harder than the wall behind me.
I looked past him. The vault door stood at the end of the passage, half-buried beneath iron rails and broken stone. Its surface was smooth obsidian, marked with thin silver lines that moved like clock hands beneath glass.
Every time one line reached the top, a memory vanished.
Nora had gone through first to find her brother. She'd come back with blood on her sleeve and no idea why she was crying.
Cade had followed her in. He'd come out staring at his own hands.
Then he had looked at me and said, "I don't remember ever seeing snow."
He'd said it like the sentence scared him more than the vault.
Now his gaze stayed fixed on me.
"What did it take from you?" he asked.
"Nothing."
"Don't lie."
"You don't know enough about me to call me a liar."
"I know you flinch every time that door ticks. I know you've stopped saying Nora's name. I know you keep touching the scar behind your ear whenever the vault speaks."
My fingers froze near my neck.
Cade's jaw tightened. "What did it take?"
"Move."
"Tell me."
"You're enjoying this?"
"No. I'm trying to keep you alive. There's a difference."
"You were sent to execute me."
"And you're still alive."
"Because I ran."
"Because I let you."
The words landed between us.
For one second, neither of us moved.
I had seen the order in his hand. My name. His seal. The black mark of the High Court. He had come for me with a blade at his belt and death stamped across his face.
He could have killed me at the station.
He could have killed me in the tunnel.
He hadn't.
That didn't make him safe.
It made him harder to understand.
"You let me run because you wanted me to lead you here," I said.
"At first."
"And now?"
His fingers slid lower, from my wrist to the base of my palm. The movement was careful. Controlled. It still sent a sharp jolt up my arm.
"Now I need you to remember what the vault is hiding."
"I don't remember coming here before."
"Neither do I."
"That's convenient."
"No, Evelyn. It's terrifying."
The vault ticked.
A silver line snapped into place.
Somewhere behind the door, a child began to hum.
My lungs locked.
The tune was wrong. The notes were too high, too bright. But I knew it. My body knew it before my mind caught up.
Cade saw my face change.
"You know that song."
"Shut up."
"Who sang it?"
"I said shut up."
"Was it your sister?"
My hand struck his cheek.
The sound cracked through the passage.
Cade's head turned with the blow. He didn't release me. He didn't raise his hand. He only looked back, his cheek already darkening beneath my fingers' shape.
"Don't say her name," I whispered.
"Mira?"
The vault ticked again.
This time, the whisper came from inside my skull.
Mira.
Mira.
Mira.
I jerked toward the door.
Cade caught me around the waist and pulled me back. My spine hit his chest. His arm locked across my ribs, holding me against him while I fought for air.
"Let go."
"Not while you're trying to walk into it."
"She was twelve."
"Who was twelve?"
"Mira. My sister."
His grip shifted, not softer, but less brutal. His mouth was close to my ear. "What happened to her?"
"Nothing."
"Evelyn."
"She was safe."
"That's not an answer."
"It was supposed to be."
I dug my elbow back. He blocked it with his forearm.
"You keep fighting me," he said, "but you haven't denied it."
"Denied what?"
"That you erased her."
My body went still.
The hum behind the door stopped.
Cade's breathing brushed the side of my neck. His arm remained across me, firm enough to remind me he could hold me there, careful enough not to hurt me.
"Say that again," I said.
"You erased your sister from your own memory."
"You don't know that."
"The vault is showing you her face without showing you the face. It only does that with memories someone cut out by force."
"You seem very informed for a man who forgot snow."
"I remember the rules. I don't remember learning them."
"Then maybe the vault is lying."
"Maybe. But you know I'm not."
I hated the certainty in his voice.
I hated that my back was against his chest. I hated the heat of him through two layers of clothing, the steady pulse under his wrist, the way he held me like he was waiting for me to stop pretending.
Most of all, I hated that I wanted to lean back for one second.
One second was enough for the vault to take a year.
"Let me go," I said.
"Will you step away from the door?"
"Yes."
"Say it like you mean it."
"I will step away from the door, Cade."
He loosened his arm.
I drove my heel into his boot and slipped free.
He caught my coat instead of my skin. The fabric snapped tight between us. I turned, grabbed the front of his shirt, and shoved him into the opposite wall.
His head missed the stone by an inch.
"You don't get to dig through my head," I said.
"Then stop making me."
"I didn't make you do anything."
"You ran into a forbidden vault with a stolen court key. You lied about knowing the entrance. You kept a dead girl's name in your mouth for three days and pretended it was nothing."
"You followed me."
"Because the order said to kill you before the city burns."
The words scraped raw.
"And you still believe that order?" I asked.
His eyes hardened. "Do you?"
I shoved him again, but this time his hand closed around my elbow and reversed our positions. My shoulders hit the wall. He planted one palm beside my head. The other stayed on my arm.
His face was inches from mine.
"Answer me," he said.
"Get off me."
"Answer me first."
"You want the truth? Fine. I think someone used your seal to order the disaster. I think you carried that order because you were too loyal to read the blood between the lines."
His expression barely moved.
That was the problem with Cade Rourke. His face could turn to ice while his hand gave away every thought. His fingers tightened when I mentioned the seal. His thumb pressed once against my sleeve, right above the black mark burned into my wrist.
"Careful," he said.
"Why? You going to execute me now?"
"If I wanted you dead, you wouldn't be talking."
"That's getting old."
"Then stop testing it."
The vault door groaned.
A thin gap opened down its center.
Cold air rolled out. It smelled like metal, dust, and something sweet gone bad.
Cade pushed me behind him.
I caught his belt and yanked him back. "Don't play shield."
"Stay behind me."
"You don't get to be noble after dragging me into this."
"I'm not noble. I'm practical. If the vault takes me, you lose the only person who can read the execution seal."
"And if it takes me?"
His gaze cut to mine. "Then I lose the only person who knows the city is already dead."
For once, I had no sharp answer ready.
He pulled a short iron tool from his coat and stepped toward the gap.
"Cade."
He stopped.
"If you see Mira in there, don't follow her."
His eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"Because she isn't real."
"How do you know?"
"Because I killed her memory myself."
The words came out before I could bite them back.
The gap in the door widened with a heavy click.
Cade turned fully toward me. "You what?"
"I erased her."
"Why?"
"I told you. She was safe."
"Safe from what?"
"From me."
His fingers lowered around the iron tool.
I could see the question hit him, then the anger behind it.
"You expect me to believe you were protecting her by cutting her out of your life?"
"I expect nothing from you."
"You cut out your own sister."
"I cut out what they could use against her."
"Who is they?"
"The Court. The memory hunters. Anyone who knew what I could do."
"And what can you do?"
I laughed once. It came out ugly. "You already know. You just don't remember knowing."
The vault clicked again.
A strip of paper slid from the opening and landed at our feet.
Cade bent to grab it.
I reached first.
His hand closed over mine.
The paper was warm. Too warm. Ink crawled across it in wet black lines, forming a list of names.
Nora Bell.
Cade Rourke.
Evelyn Morrow.
Beside each name sat a number.
Nora: 02.
Cade: 04.
Evelyn: 13.
My stomach dropped.
Cade saw the numbers.
"What do they mean?" he asked.
"I don't know."
"You do."
"I don't."
"Why are you thirteen?"
The paper shuddered beneath our hands.
A second line appeared underneath my name.
MIRA MORROW: REMOVED.
Cade's grip went rigid.
"You said she was safe," he said.
"She was."
"You said nothing happened to her."
"Nothing happened to her body."
His eyes lifted to mine. The anger had gone. That was worse.
"Where is she?"
I swallowed. "I don't know."
"You erased her memory. You don't know where she is?"
"I erased my memory of her. Not hers."
"Then tell me what you did."
The paper burned against my palm.
I could hear Mira laughing again. I could see a red scarf in a hand I couldn't place. I could feel a small grip around two of my fingers.
Then the memory snapped shut.
I gasped.
Cade stepped closer. "Evelyn."
"Don't."
"You're shaking."
"Don't touch me."
He stopped with his hand inches from my face.
That pause did something dangerous to the space between us. His eyes stayed on mine. His breath was warm against my cheek. He could have touched me. He chose not to.
I wanted him to.
I hated that more than the vault.
"I sent her away," I said. "Before the Court found out she was mine."
"Yours?"
"My sister. My responsibility. My weakness. Pick a word. They all work."
"And you removed her from your memory so no one could steal the route to her?"
"I removed the route. The places. Her name. Everything I knew that could lead them to her."
"You did it to yourself."
"Who else was I supposed to trust?"
His face tightened.
"You could have trusted me," he said.
I stared at him. "I met you with a blade at my throat."
"You met me after I was ordered to kill you."
"That isn't better."
"No," he said. "It isn't."
The admission stole my next attack.
For a moment, he looked less like Grayharbor's execution officer and more like a man who had finally found a door he couldn't kick open.
Then the paper jerked in our hands.
Fresh ink spread across the bottom.
Not a name this time.
A sentence.
THE LOOP IS BEING WATCHED.
The vault lights went out.
Somewhere in the dark, a lock turned.
Cade's hand found my waist and pulled me against him before the floor shifted under our boots.
"Don't move," he breathed.
"You keep saying that like I listen."
"For once, try."
A red mark appeared beneath the sentence, shaped like a crown split down the middle.
Cade leaned over the paper. His shoulder pressed against mine. "That's not a vault mark."
"No."
"You've seen it before."
"Yes."
"Where?"
The ink finished forming one final line.
SIGNED: HIGH MINISTER ALDRIC VALE.
Cade went still.
I felt his heartbeat against my back.
"The signature belongs to the High Minister," I said. Cade looked at me. "Then why is his seal on a command that orders me to—"