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"Don't touch the page." Cade's hand closed around my wrist before my fingers reached the black strip of paper.
The archive snapped shut.
A sharp crack ran through the buried clock vault. The shelves shuddered. Loose records flew from their slots and spun around us like thrown knives.
I yanked against Cade's grip. "Let go."
"You heard the warning."
"I heard the vault lie. There's a difference."
His fingers tightened. Warm skin. Hard grip. Too close. His chest nearly brushed my shoulder, and his breath touched the side of my face when he leaned in.
"You want to test that theory?" he asked.
"I want the order."
"You want to put your hand in a machine that's already eaten three years of your life."
"It ate three years because you stood there and watched it happen."
His jaw flexed. "I was keeping it from taking the rest."
Behind him, Nora stumbled into a stack of iron drawers. She caught herself with one hand, then stared at the blood on her palm like she couldn't remember where it came from.
"Nora," I said. "Stay back."
She blinked at me. "Who are you?"
The question hit harder than the vault's shaking.
Cade pulled me against him as another drawer burst open. A wave of cold air slammed through the chamber. The records inside began whispering in overlapping voices.
My name.
Mira's name.
Cade's name.
Then numbers.
Thirteen.
Removed.
Watched.
"It's feeding again," Cade said.
"I know."
"Then stop fighting me."
"You first."
He turned me so my back struck the stone pillar behind us. His arm came up beside my head, blocking a spinning metal tag. It hit his sleeve and dropped at our feet.
His face was inches from mine. Gray eyes. No patience left in them.
"Listen carefully, Evelyn," he said. "If you touch that order, the archive will take the memory you use to read it. Maybe more. You already forgot your sister once. I won't watch you lose her twice."
My throat tightened. "Don't say her name like you have the right."
"I have the right to keep you alive."
"That's not a right. That's an executioner's habit."
His stare dropped to my mouth for half a second.
Then it snapped back to my eyes.
"Call it whatever helps you sleep."
"I don't sleep. Not anymore."
The vault groaned around us.
A black page slid out from the central drawer and landed on the floor. The seal stamped across it had been cut in half, but I could still see the edges of the high minister's mark.
Aldrick Veyr.
My pulse kicked.
"That's it," I said.
Cade caught my arm again when I lunged.
"Evelyn."
"The order is right there."
"And the vault wants you to read it."
"It wants one of us."
"Same problem."
I drove my elbow into his ribs.
He grunted but didn't release me. He twisted, pinned both my wrists against the pillar, and put his weight between me and the page.
The move should have made me furious.
It did.
It also put the heat of him everywhere I could feel. His coat scraped my knuckles. His knee pressed against mine. His breath came rougher now, close enough that I could count the beats between each word.
"You keep grabbing me," I said.
"You keep trying to die."
"Maybe stop giving me reasons."
"Give me one reason not to chain you to that pillar."
"Because I'd bite through the chain."
His mouth almost moved. Not a smile. Something more dangerous. "That wasn't the answer I wanted."
"You're not getting the answer you want."
"You never do."
For one stupid second, neither of us moved.
The records whispered louder.
Mira.
Mira.
Mira.
Cade's grip shifted. His thumb brushed the inside of my wrist, right over the dark ring locked beneath my skin. The obsidian band pulsed once.
Pain punched through my arm.
I cried out and shoved at him. "Get it off me."
"I'm trying."
"Try harder."
"The ring isn't mine."
"Your seal put it there."
His expression changed. Barely. A hard pause around the eyes.
"My seal didn't put anything on you."
"The mark on your order did. The same mark that dragged me here."
"You think I don't know what my seal looks like?"
"I think you know exactly what it looks like. I think you just don't know who used it."
The words landed between us.
Cade released one of my wrists.
I expected him to step back. He didn't. He kept one hand around my other wrist and reached for the torn order with the free one.
"Cade, don't."
"You said you wanted the truth."
"Not if the vault takes it from you."
His eyes cut to mine. "Concerned?"
"Don't flatter yourself. If you forget the truth, I have to find it alone."
"There she is."
He bent toward the page.
The black ink rose off the paper.
It lifted in thin strings and shot toward his hand.
Cade swore and pulled back, but the ink had already wrapped around his fingers. It crawled under his glove and up his wrist.
I grabbed his sleeve. "Let go of it."
"I am."
"You are not!"
"The page is stuck."
The archive slammed every drawer at once.
The sound knocked Nora to her knees.
A burst of white light ripped through the room. My vision broke into pieces. For half a second, I saw a city burning beneath a black sky. I saw Cade standing in front of a firing platform. I saw my own body on the stone.
Then the image vanished.
Cade dropped to one knee.
"What did you see?" I demanded.
His head jerked up. "Nothing."
"Liar."
"Get Nora out."
"Not until you tell me."
"Evelyn, move."
The floor split under his boot.
I grabbed his coat and hauled him sideways as a metal spike punched up through the stone. It missed his leg by an inch. He hit the floor hard, dragging me down with him.
His shoulder caught my ribs. My hand landed against his chest. His heartbeat hammered beneath my palm.
"You all right?" he asked.
"Ask yourself."
"I asked you."
"Then stop bleeding on me."
A line of red ran from beneath his glove and dripped onto the order.
The paper drank it.
The ink stopped climbing his arm.
Cade stared at the blood.
"That's new," I said.
"Don't sound pleased."
"I'm not pleased. I'm interested."
"You say that right before doing something reckless."
"You say that right before putting a blade in my throat."
"I haven't done that in this loop."
The words came out too fast.
He froze.
So did I.
The vault went quiet for one breath.
"This loop?" I asked.
Cade looked away first. "You heard me wrong."
"No, I didn't."
"The archive is in your head. It can make voices sound—"
"Don't you dare blame the vault."
I caught the front of his coat and dragged him closer. "What do you remember?"
His hand closed around mine, but he didn't pull it away.
"Enough to know you shouldn't touch that page."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you're getting."
"You remember another execution."
His thumb pressed against my knuckles.
"Evelyn."
"You remember killing me."
His face went still.
Not confused. Not shocked.
Still.
The worst kind of answer.
I shoved him away and got to my feet. "How many?"
"Don't."
"How many times did you put me on that platform?"
"You don't know what you're asking."
"Thirteen? Is that what the number means? You killed me thirteen times?"
The vault answered for him.
A dozen drawers opened. Every record inside carried the same black number.
13.
Cade stood slowly. The paper clung to his bloody hand.
"I didn't choose it," he said.
"That makes it better?"
"No."
"Did you ever hesitate?"
"Yes."
"Did you ever let me live?"
His eyes met mine. "Once."
A shiver ran through me, and I hated that he saw it.
He stepped closer. "You came back anyway."
"I don't know what that means."
"Neither do I."
For the first time, his voice cracked around the truth.
The archive gave a violent jerk. The page tore free from his hand, taking a strip of skin with it. Cade clenched his fist, but he didn't make a sound.
I reached for him before I could stop myself.
"Don't," he said.
"You need a bandage."
"You need distance."
"You first."
His gaze dropped to my hand hovering over his wrist. The space between us felt too narrow. His skin was hot. Mine was colder, except where the ring burned beneath it.
"You want to help me?" he asked quietly.
"I want the order."
"That wasn't what I asked."
"Don't make this strange."
"You make everything strange."
Nora pushed herself upright against the drawers. "Can someone stop flirting and keep the death machine from eating us?"
I jerked my hand back. "We are not flirting."
Cade looked at Nora. "She's right about the death machine."
"That is not a denial," Nora said.
A new shock rolled through the chamber. This time the shelves folded inward. Iron doors slammed across the exits.
Nora ran to the nearest one and pulled the handle. It didn't move.
"The vault is sealing," she said. "We have maybe a minute."
"Then open it," I said.
"I don't remember how."
"You built half the access system."
"Apparently I forgot that too."
Cade took the order from the floor. The black page twitched in his hand like something alive.
"Read it to me," I said.
"No."
"You don't get to decide that."
"I do when your memory is the price."
"My memory is already gone."
"And you still have enough left to know your sister mattered."
I stepped into him. "Say her name again and I swear—"
"You'll do what?"
He caught my chin between two fingers and tipped my face up. The touch was controlled, careful, and somehow worse than force. His eyes searched mine like he was trying to find the missing piece himself.
"You don't even remember her voice," he said.
My breath caught.
"How do you know that?"
His fingers stilled.
"Cade."
"I know because you asked me who she was."
The room tilted.
"When?"
He didn't answer.
"When did I ask you that?"
"Not here."
"Which loop?"
"The one where you trusted me."
The words cut clean.
I slapped his hand away. "I never trusted you."
"You did."
"Then I was stupid."
"You were dying."
"And you were holding the knife."
He flinched.
That tiny movement gave me the opening I needed. I snatched the order from his hand and pressed it against the brass plate beside the central drawer.
The vault woke up.
Black fire raced across the paper. It wrapped around my fingers and punched straight into my skull.
A voice spoke inside my head.
Bring—
I screamed and dropped the page.
Cade caught me before my knees hit the floor. One arm locked around my waist. The other clamped over the back of my neck, pulling my face against his shoulder.
"Look at me," he ordered.
"Get off me."
"Look at me."
"I can't—"
"Evelyn. Eyes on me."
I forced my head up.
His face was close. Too close. His breath shook against my cheek, and his grip held me steady while the archive tore through my thoughts.
"Tell me five things you can see," he said.
"Your stupid face."
"Good. Four more."
"The page. The red mark on your glove. Nora. The door."
"Four things you can feel."
"Your hand. The floor. The ring. My teeth."
"Three things you can hear."
"You. Nora. The vault."
The pressure in my skull sharpened.
Cade pulled me tighter. "Stay with me."
"It has the line."
"What line?"
"The order. It says—"
The ink surged.
Cade shoved me behind him and took the full blast.
The black light struck his chest. His back slammed into the pillar. His head snapped against stone.
"Cade!"
He slid down, but his hand stayed locked around mine.
The page dropped between us.
For one terrible second, he didn't move.
Then he sucked in a breath and forced himself upright.
"You idiot," I said, dropping beside him. "You absolute—"
"Say the line."
"You took it."
"I took the hit. Not the memory. Say it."
His pupils were wide. Blood ran from one nostril, but his grip stayed firm around my hand.
I leaned closer. "It said, 'By order of—'"
The vault shrieked.
Cade's fingers dug into mine. "Again."
"By order of the High Minister—"
The page flashed.
A second voice tore through the chamber, louder than the first.
"False authority detected. Seal authentication required."
Nora stared at the paper. "That's not a normal archive response."
"No kidding," I said.
Cade reached for the page.
I caught his wrist. "Don't take another hit."
"Then hold me back."
"Gladly."
He pulled anyway. I wrapped both hands around his arm, bracing my boots against the floor. His muscles tightened beneath my fingers.
"Evelyn," he warned.
"You want the truth? Get it without playing the martyr."
"You're worried about me."
"I'm worried about the only person here who can read the seal."
"Liar."
"Officer."
His gaze locked on mine.
For a beat, the vault disappeared. No drawers. No voices. Just his hand under mine and the rough edge of his breath.
Then Nora shouted, "The paper's moving!"
We both turned.
The order lifted off the floor.
The torn back faced us.
Fresh ink began crawling across it in thin, wet lines.
Cade let go of my wrist and stepped in front of me.
"Stay behind me."
"Stop ordering me around."
"Not happening."
"You can't protect me from ink."
"Watch me."
He pulled the short execution blade from his belt and held it toward the page. The metal edge trembled under the pressure of the vault's magic.
The ink finished the first sentence.
Bring Evelyn—
My stomach dropped.
"It knows my name," I whispered.
"The archive has known your name since the first record."
"No. This is new."
The next words appeared.
To the buried clock vault.
Nora went pale. "We're already here."
"No," I said. "We're at the door."
Cade's head turned toward the sealed passage behind us.
The ink kept moving.
Bring Evelyn to the buried clock vault.
Below the words, a symbol burned into the page.
Cade's seal.
Not a copy. Not a forged stamp.
The real mark.
He stared at it, blade still raised.
"You said your seal didn't authorize this," I said.
"It didn't."
"Then why is it here?"
"I don't know."
"You always know. That's your whole act. Cold officer. Perfect orders. Never surprised."
His eyes stayed on the symbol. "I'm surprised."
The ring around my wrist tightened.
A sharp line of heat cut across my skin.
I looked down.
Red numbers appeared beneath the obsidian band.
13:00.
12:59.
Cade saw them at the same time.
"Get the ring off," he said.
"You told me it couldn't be removed."
"I said I couldn't remove it."
"Big difference."
"Evelyn, give me your arm."
"No."
He seized my wrist anyway and dragged me close. His thumb pressed against the burning numbers. The seal on his glove lit up in answer.
Pain tore up my arm.
The page flipped by itself.
More ink appeared on the back, fast and wet.
Cade's seal burned brighter.
The countdown dropped.
12:41.
Nora backed away. "What happens at zero?"
Cade didn't answer.
"Cade," I snapped. "What happens at zero?"
His grip tightened until our palms locked together.
"The vault opens," he said.
"And?"
He looked at the order.
At my name.
At the countdown.
"And whoever ordered this gets what they've been waiting for."
The page turned one final time.
A fresh line crawled across the back beneath his seal.
Bring Evelyn to the buried clock vault.
Alive.
Cade's blade rose toward the paper, but before it fell, a new sentence began writing itself—