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The silver ring snapped around Nora’s shoes, and the chapel doors slammed shut behind her.
Cold light raced across the black floor.
“Wait.” She spun toward the doors. “I’m not signing anything until I see my father’s breathing key.”
No one answered.
Across the aisle, chains jerked tight.
Kane Rhoan stood beneath the red royal seal with both wrists locked to the floor. More chains crossed his shoulders and vanished beneath a restraint collar. Blue bands pulsed along its edge.
His face was hidden behind a smooth porcelain mask.
No eyes. No mouth. Nothing human to read.
Nora stepped back. “You’re the groom?”
The mask turned toward her.
“Don’t panic.”
The voice slid through her mind.
Nora’s fingers closed around the seam of her coat. “You’re in my head.”
“You came.”
“That wasn’t an invitation.”
“I know.”
The royal seal flared.
Symbols crawled through the ring around her feet. Contract marks. Registry clauses. Old imperial script.
Nora knew enough to recognize the important parts.
“One year,” she muttered. “Shared residence. Shared liability. No dissolution without royal approval.” She looked up at the masked man. “And if I breach it, the Crown takes my assets and transfers the debt to my blood relatives.”
“You read quickly.”
“My father’s life depends on it.”
The chapel floor vibrated beneath her boots.
“Thirty-seven thousand, four hundred and twelve crowns,” Nora said. “That’s what this marriage costs me.”
“That’s what the Crown told you.”
Her head snapped up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
A panel opened behind the royal seal.
Mechanical arms unfolded from the stone. Crystal needles slid into position, aimed at Kane’s wrists, throat, temples, and chest.
Nora stared. “They didn’t mention the torture chamber.”
“They didn’t mention me, either.”
The first needle fired.
It punched into the iron ring around Kane’s left wrist. Blue current tore down the chain. His fingers clenched. Leather split across one glove.
The second needle followed.
Then the third.
The chapel filled with a savage electric hum.
“Kane?” Nora said.
“Don’t come closer.”
His voice still sounded inside her skull, but the warning hit hard enough to make her ears ring.
“You’re chained to the floor.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then what am I supposed to do? Watch?”
“Yes.”
A fourth crystal needle dropped from the ceiling and pierced his collar.
Kane’s back slammed against the chains.
The blue lights around his throat turned violet.
Nora flinched. “That looked bad.”
“It is.”
“Good. We agree on something.”
The collar discharged.
Lightning ripped across his coat. Kane’s body went rigid. The chains screamed against the floor, but he made no sound.
The air smelled like scorched wool and hot metal.
Nora’s vision sharpened.
Silver lines appeared beneath the surface of the magic. They spread over the chapel in bright, tangled paths. The contract machine opened inside her mind, every rune and connection laid bare.
The system was wrong.
Not damaged. Wrong by design.
The main channel ran backward into a dead node. The stabilizing rune had been inverted. This wasn’t a binding spell.
It was a siphon.
If the contract closed like this, it would drain Kane until his heart stopped.
Or it would look for another vessel.
Nora looked at the glowing band around her wrist.
“No,” she whispered.
Kane’s mask turned toward her. “You see it.”
“You knew.”
“I’ve known for three months.”
“And you still agreed to this?”
“I didn’t agree.”
The chain around his right wrist tightened. His knee struck the stone.
Nora took one step toward the altar.
“Stop.”
She took another.
“Nora.”
“You know my name.”
“I know more than your name.”
“Then start explaining.”
“You need to bind the contract.”
“Your answer to everything is an order.”
“It’s the only reason you’re still breathing.”
The ring around Nora’s feet brightened. Liquid light climbed her wrist, searching for a place to close.
Across the aisle, a matching band formed around Kane’s right wrist.
She studied the pattern. “This is feeding on you.”
“I know.”
“Then break it.”
“I can’t reach the central line.”
“You’ve got two arms.”
“Both are chained.”
“Convenient.”
The violet light climbed his collar.
Kane’s head lowered. “Don’t come closer.”
“You’ve said that three times.”
“Because you haven’t listened once.”
“What happens if I do nothing?”
His silence lasted half a second too long.
Nora’s throat tightened. “Kane.”
“The Crown gets its response.”
“What response?”
“A weapon.”
The word landed in her mind like ash.
A deep vibration rolled through the chapel. The black-glass dome trembled. Dust fell from the carved pillars.
Every chain began to sing.
Nora felt the sound in her teeth.
The rumors had called Kane a traitor. A murderer. A saboteur who’d burned half the royal engine district before disappearing.
They hadn’t mentioned this.
They hadn’t mentioned that the air seemed to pull away from him.
“Kane.” She moved closer. “If you lose control, what happens?”
“People die.”
“People in this chapel?”
“People outside it.”
“My father?”
The mask lifted.
The pause told her enough.
“Answer me!”
“I don’t know.”
Nora’s hand curled into a fist. “You don’t know?”
“I’ve never been this close to the core.”
The blue light crawled beneath the edge of his collar. Something crackled under the porcelain mask.
For the first time, his voice shook.
“Get out.”
“No.”
“You’ll die.”
“My father dies if I leave.”
“You think this marriage saves him?”
“It’s the only deal I have.”
“It isn’t a deal.”
“What is it, then?”
“A trap.”
The contract ring tightened around her wrist.
Nora hissed and grabbed it with her other hand. The light burned through her glove.
Kane pulled against the chains. “Don’t touch the band.”
“Why?”
“It’ll mark you as the vessel.”
“Already did.”
His mask snapped toward her.
Nora lifted her wrist. “You should’ve led with that.”
“I told you to leave.”
“You keep confusing orders with useful information.”
The chapel shook again.
Kane’s chains dragged him upright. The floor cracked beneath his boots.
“Nora, listen to me.”
His voice was lower now. Closer. The words brushed the inside of her skull like warm breath.
“If you touch the central line, the surge will jump to you.”
“That’s the plan.”
“That’s not a plan.”
“It’s better than standing here while the Crown turns you into a bomb.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“I know broken machinery.”
“This isn’t machinery.”
“It has channels, feedback loops, and a badly patched stabilizer. It’s machinery with delusions.”
For a moment, Kane didn’t answer.
Then he said, “You’re a mechanic.”
“You’re observant for a man wearing a plate over his face.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“You’re doing a terrible job.”
Nora stepped into the contract circle.
The light rose to her knees.
Kane’s chains snapped taut. “No.”
The word cracked through her mind hard enough to make her stagger.
She kept walking.
“You need me.”
“I need you alive.”
“That wasn’t what I said.”
“It’s what you should’ve said.”
The royal seal chimed.
The unfinished band around her wrist opened toward him.
Nora crossed the last few feet.
Heat rolled off Kane in dry waves. Blue sparks crawled across his ruined coat. The collar pulsed beside her face.
She stopped close enough to feel the vibration in his chest.
Kane’s gloved hand flexed against the chain.
“Back away.”
“Take off the mask.”
“No.”
“Then stop pretending I can read your mind.”
“You can.”
That caught her.
“What?”
“Your silver sight. It isn’t just showing you the contract.”
Nora looked at the blank mask. “What is it showing me?”
“You.”
The word came out rough.
His head dipped toward hers. The porcelain nearly brushed her forehead.
His heat pressed against her. Her breath caught, and she hated that he noticed.
“You’re distracting me,” she said.
“You’re standing too close.”
“You told me the lightning would jump.”
“It will.”
“Then why aren’t you moving?”
“I can’t.”
The answer hung between them.
Not fear.
Not exactly.
More like a locked door with something furious pounding behind it.
Nora looked past him, at the broken central line glowing beneath his collar.
“There,” she said. “I can fix that.”
“No.”
“You don’t get a vote.”
“I get the only vote that matters.”
“Cute.”
“Nora—”
She reached for the light.
Her fingers touched the broken circuit.
Lightning struck.
White fire tore up her arm and across her chest. Her knees hit the floor. The chapel vanished beneath a roar.
Every nerve burned.
She smelled blood. Hot metal. Burned sugar—the kind her father used to hide in the workshop drawers when she was little.
“Nora!” Kane’s voice broke through the storm.
She saw a burning palace.
A boy stood beneath it, blood at his mouth. A crown of lightning hovered above his head. His eyes flashed the same impossible silver as the lines under her skin.
A woman in a mechanic’s coat walked away from him.
“Who is she?” Nora gasped.
“Don’t look.”
“Who is she?”
“Run.”
The vision shattered.
The circuit writhed beneath her fingertips.
Nora gritted her teeth. “Not without my father.”
“You’ll kill us both.”
“Then help me.”
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder!”
The magic slammed through her again.
Her scream ripped out.
Kane surged against the chains. “Let go!”
“Fixing it!”
“Let go!”
“Shut up!”
She twisted the main channel around the dead node. Severed the inverted rune. Forced the broken branch into the stabilizer.
The spell fought back.
Silver light poured through her hand.
Kane’s voice dropped to a rasp. “Nora, don’t—”
She pulled.
Every chain around him shattered.
Iron fragments exploded across the chapel. One buried itself in a pillar. Another sliced through Nora’s sleeve and slammed into the altar steps.
The restraint collar cracked down the center.
Blue sparks burst against the dark.
Kane fell forward.
He caught Nora before she hit the floor.
His arm locked around her waist, holding her against the heat of him. Her cheek struck his chest. Beneath the ruined coat, his heart slammed hard enough for her to feel it.
Alive.
So was she.
The silver band around her wrist flashed, tightened—and Kane’s hand shot toward the porcelain mask as he said, “You saw her, didn’t you? You saw my—”