Chapter 4

I don't ask. I just turn and haul him faster. Behind us, boots hit pavement in perfect sync. The Registry agents aren't running. They don't need to.

Kieran stumbles. His hand clamps down on my wrist, ice cold. "Mara. Listen—"

"Save it." I yank him upright. "You can explain when we're not about to get arrested."

"You have to bind me."

I almost trip over a broken curb. "What?"

"The shard." His breath hitches. "It's killing me. You felt it, right? When you touched it."

I did. That hot pulse shooting up my arm, the voice that wasn't mine. *Your sister said you were ready.* I shove the memory down. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do." He's barely staying upright. "Your blood. It can stabilize the fragment. Seven days."

"That's insane."

"It's a life bond. Old Registry protocol." His voice cracks. "If you don't do it I'll be dead in an hour."

I want to shove him off. I want to scream at him for bleeding all over my apartment, for knowing Elise's nickname, for dragging me into this. Instead I keep walking. The agents are getting louder. Faster.

"Why me?" My voice comes out rough. "Why my blood?"

"Because you're Elise's sister."

I stop cold.

Kieran almost collapses. I catch him by the collar and slam him against the nearest wall. Old laundromat. Windows black. Door hanging open.

"You knew her."

"Yes."

"How?"

His eyes are half-closed but he's looking right at me. "We worked together. For a while."

"Worked for who? The Registry?"

He doesn't answer.

"She was an archivist." My hands are shaking. I tighten my grip. "She filed records. She didn't work with thieves who break into apartments and steal magic door keys or whatever the hell that thing is."

"She did more than file records."

"You're lying."

"I was there when she vanished."

The world tilts. Boots behind us, maybe a block away. I should move. I can't.

"What did you do to her?"

"I didn't—" He stops. His jaw clenches. "It's complicated."

"Try me."

"Mara, we don't have time—"

I slam him into the wall again. His head cracks against brick and he hisses. Good. "You don't get to say her name. You don't get to show up bleeding on my doorstep and tell me she sent you. Not unless you tell me what happened."

Kieran looks at me for a long moment. Then he reaches into his jacket and pulls out the black shard. Still wrapped in my dish towel. Soaked through with blood.

He unwraps it. Holds it out.

I don't take it.

"This was hers," he says quietly. "She gave it to me the night she disappeared. Told me to run. Told me to find you if anything went wrong."

"And then what? You just left her?"

"I tried to pull her through. She wouldn't come."

"Through where?"

"A sealed door. One of the old ones, deep in the Archives." His expression hardens. "She'd been planning to open it for months. When Dorian Kells found out—"

"Who's Dorian Kells?"

"Registry enforcement chief. My former mentor." His eyes lock on mine. "The man who'll kill both of us if we don't move right now."

A shout from the end of the block. Two agents round the corner, silver coats catching the light. One raises her hand. Something bright flares at her wrist.

Kieran shoves the shard into my palm.

The heat slams into me. Not just heat. Pressure, like something's crawling up my veins and into my chest. I see flashes that aren't mine. A woman's hand pressing a black key into a lock. A door swinging open onto a staircase going down and down and down. Elise's face, younger than I remember, telling someone to run.

Telling Kieran to run.

"Bind me." His voice is steady despite the blood. "Your blood on the shard. Your name and mine. Seven days."

"And then what?"

"Then I'm strong enough to fight. And you get answers."

The agents are thirty feet away. The woman in front has her hand raised higher. I can see the device on her wrist now. Silver band, glass core. Glowing brighter.

"If you're lying—"

"I'm not."

"If you killed her—"

"I didn't." His eyes don't leave mine. "But I know who did."

I don't think. I drag the sharp edge of the shard across my palm and it cuts deep. Too easy. Blood wells up fast. I press my hand against Kieran's where he's holding the other side.

The world goes white.

I hear myself say my name. I hear Kieran say his. I hear a third voice, low and urgent, whispering words I don't understand. The shard burns between our hands and then the heat rushes outward, up both our arms, wrapping around us like a chain I can't see.

*Seven days.*

The thought isn't mine but I know it's true. Seven days before the bond breaks. Seven days before one of us dies.

The light fades. I'm back on the street. The agents have stopped. They're staring. The woman's wrist device has gone dark.

"What did you do?" Her voice is sharp.

Kieran straightens. He's still pale but he's standing on his own. The wound in his side has stopped bleeding. When he looks at me his eyes are clearer.

"Mara Venn," he says quietly. "Meet the Registry's worst nightmare."

The woman takes a step forward. "That bond is illegal. You'll both be detained until—"

"Try it," Kieran says.

She does. She raises her hand. The device flares bright. But when the light shoots toward us it hits something invisible two feet away and scatters like water on glass. The bond. Shielding us.

Kieran grabs my uninjured hand. "Run."

We run.

The agents shout behind us but they don't follow. Maybe they can't. I don't care. I just run.

We turn down an alley. Then another. Kieran's moving faster now, almost pulling me. The shard is still in my bleeding hand. I can feel it humming. Warm. Alive. It doesn't hurt anymore.

It feels like it belongs there.

That scares me more than the Registry.

We stop in the shadow of an old apartment building. Door open. Kieran leans against the wall and presses a hand to his side. The wound is closed but the skin looks raw.

"Seven days," I say. My voice is shaking. "What happens in seven days?"

"The bond breaks. If I haven't recovered, I die."

"And if you have?"

"Then you get your answers. About Elise. About the doors. About why the Registry wants this shard."

I look down at my palm. The cut's still bleeding but slower. The shard is slick with it. "You said you were there when she vanished. You said you know who killed her."

"I do."

"Then tell me."

Kieran's quiet. Then he reaches out and touches the shard. His fingers brush mine. The bond hums between us and suddenly I'm not in the alley anymore.

I'm in a dark hallway. Stone walls. The smell of old paper and something metallic. Elise is in front of me, her back to me, her hand on a black door. She's saying something I can't hear. Then she turns.

She's not scared. She's determined.

She pushes the door open. The hallway fills with light. I see Kieran's silhouette against the brightness. I see Elise shove him backward through the doorway. I see someone else step out of the shadows behind her. Someone tall. Silver coat. Cold eyes.

I see the door slam shut.

The vision breaks. I'm back in the alley. My hand is cramping around the shard. Kieran is watching me.

"She pushed you through," I whisper.

"Yes."

"To save you."

"Yes."

"And the person behind her—"

"Dorian Kells."

I close my fist around the shard. The heat pulses once, twice, matching my heartbeat.

"Then we have seven days to kill him."

Kieran doesn't answer. He just pulls something from his coat pocket. A folded piece of paper. Old. Yellowed at the edges. He holds it out.

"What is it?"

"A map. To the other shards."

I take it. Unfold it. The paper is covered in lines and symbols I don't recognize. But at the center, circled in faded red ink, is a single word.

*Kells.*

"There are more of these?" I hold up the shard.

"Five more. Scattered across the city. Hidden in the old doors."

"And Kells has them."

"He's looking for them. So is someone else."

"Who?"

Kieran's expression shifts. Something flickers across his face. Fear. Real fear.

"The person who opened the first door," he says quietly. "The one your sister died trying to close."

Footsteps echo from the alley entrance. Multiple pairs. Moving fast.

Kieran grabs my arm. "We need to go. Now."

"Wait—" I look down at the map. At the word circled in red. "Who opened the door? Who are we running from?"

The footsteps are closer. Kieran pulls me toward the building's open door.

"I'll tell you when we're inside."

"Tell me now."

He stops. Turns. His face is pale in the dim light.

"Your sister," he says.

The world stops.

"What?"

"Elise opened the first door. She let something through. And then she tried to lock it back." His voice drops. "Kells killed her because she failed."

I can't breathe. Can't think. The shard burns in my hand.

"You're lying."

"I'm not."

"She wouldn't—"

"She did. And whatever came through is still out there." He glances over his shoulder. The footsteps are almost at the alley now. "It's hunting the shards. And now that you're bonded to me—"

A figure steps into the alley mouth. Not a Registry agent. No silver coat. Just a shadow, tall and thin, with eyes that catch the light wrong.

Kieran goes rigid. "Run," he breathes.

The shadow smiles.

"Mara Venn," it says. Its voice sounds like Elise's.

"The bond won't save you from me."