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"Kane Rhoan! Kneel, or the bride dies first!"
The chapel doors blew inward.
Black uniforms poured through the breach. White arc-lamps flashed across porcelain masks marked with the Crown's silver eye. Behind the soldiers crawled a brass execution frame on six spiderlike legs, its crystal core whining with power.
Nora's knees buckled.
Kane caught her before she hit the marble. His arm locked around her waist, hard and hot through the torn remains of his shirt.
"Stay behind me."
"No."
His grip tightened. "Nora."
"If they came for both of us, hiding behind you won't save me."
"Stay behind me."
The second order carried a faint crackle. The air prickled along her skin.
Nora glanced down. The contract ring around her finger glowed silver-blue. Thin lines crawled beneath her skin like living wire. A matching band burned around Kane's finger.
Between them, something invisible tugged with every beat of her heart.
"That ring's getting worse," she said.
"I know."
"You keep saying that like it's useful."
At the far end of the chapel, the chief executioner raised one gloved hand. His mask stretched into a bird's skull, crowned with black metal from brow to jaw.
"Kane Rhoan," he called. "By authority of the Asterfall Crown and the Execution Bureau, you will kneel and submit to recontainment."
The ruined royal seal smoked at Kane's feet. He'd crushed it only moments ago.
Nora tasted burned copper. "They know your name."
"They know a name."
"You crushed the royal seal."
"I noticed."
"And the contract called you an heir."
Kane finally looked at her.
For one second, his control slipped. Something old and furious stared through his gray eyes, something that had spent years chained in the dark and had just found the door open.
Then the executioner slammed his staff against the floor.
The chapel answered.
Runes burst to life beneath the marble. Blue-white bars rose around the altar, locking into a massive cage. Stained-glass windows flared as the chapel's control system pulled power from Asterfall's grid.
Far below, the floating districts groaned around their levitation engines.
Kane's hand pressed harder against Nora's side. "Don't move."
"I wasn't planning to dance."
His mouth almost twitched.
Almost.
The force cage snapped shut.
Lightning exploded from Kane's chest.
He jerked as if an invisible spear had punched through him. Black light raced from his collarbone to his throat. Frost flashed over the nearest pew, then vanished in a burst of steam.
The contract ring yanked Nora forward. Not by her hand. By something deeper. It hooked beneath her ribs and dragged her toward Kane, as if the bond could feel his pain and wanted to share it.
Her silver talent flared.
The chapel's spellwork opened inside her senses. Layers of glowing circuitry unfolded. Every bar of the cage connected to Kane through threads of royal script.
The execution frame behind the soldiers was feeding from him.
"Kane," she said. "The cage is siphoning your power."
"I know."
"Then stop standing in it."
"I'm trying."
That answer hit harder than the lightning.
Kane's jaw locked. His shoulders shook once. Thunder rolled through the chapel and rattled dust from the rafters.
The soldiers raised their weapons. Narrow wands with crystal shards at the tips.
The chief executioner pointed at Nora. "On my command, sever the bride's hand from the condemned."
Nora stared at his mask. "That's your plan?"
"The contract made you a conduit. Once separated, the heir can be safely neutralized."
"Safely?"
"Your survival isn't part of the order."
Kane went still.
The thunder stopped.
That silence scared Nora more than the noise.
He released her and stepped toward the cage. The glowing bars shrieked as they tightened around him. Black lightning crawled over his skin and vanished beneath it.
"Kane," Nora whispered.
He didn't answer.
The executioner lifted his staff. "Fire."
A dozen crystal bolts tore across the chapel.
Kane moved.
One bolt struck him and burst into blue sparks. Another punched through his side. He raised one hand, and a third shattered against his palm.
The rest twisted in midair.
A magnetic pull caught them. They slammed into the chapel walls instead. Stone burst apart. Soldiers flew backward. One porcelain mask cracked against a pillar.
Kane staggered.
Blood darkened the corner of his mouth.
Nora grabbed his arm. "You're bleeding."
"Not important."
"It's on my boots. It matters to me."
His gaze dropped to her shoes, then returned to her face. The silver in his eyes flickered.
The cage tightened again.
Kane cried out.
The sound punched straight through Nora. His knees dipped, and the ring on her finger flared white-hot.
Then she understood. The contract wasn't only binding them. It was splitting the pressure. Every surge that struck Kane crossed the bond and entered her as a smaller, cleaner current.
The silver lines spread up her wrist.
Kane saw them.
His expression broke. "No."
He tore his arm away.
"Kane—"
"Break the bond."
"I can't."
"Rewrite it."
"I already did."
"Then do it again."
"Stop ordering me around and tell me what to change!"
Another surge slammed into him. The floor split beneath his boots. A pillar of white lightning burst from his back and struck the ceiling.
A crown-shaped blaze spread across the broken stained glass.
The soldiers recoiled.
Even the chief executioner took a step back.
Kane stared up at the burning symbol.
Nora remembered the vision from the ceremony: a boy kneeling beneath a storm, a woman in a ruined royal gown, a black blade falling.
A crown sinking into fire.
Kane's face had been in the boy's place.
Not a prisoner.
A prince.
No. More than that.
The heir.
Light cracked beneath Kane's skin. His breath came rough and fast, each exhale carrying a spark. The storm inside him was trying to break free.
"If you let it loose, you'll bring the chapel down," Nora said.
"Move away from me."
"You'll kill everyone in here."
"Move."
"Not until you tell me what I'm supposed to stabilize."
His gaze snapped to hers.
For one sharp second, the chapel vanished around them. Nora saw only the burning rings, Kane's clenched jaw, and the storm pulsing under his skin.
His breath brushed her cheek. "You want the truth?"
"I want to live. Start there."
The chief executioner laughed behind his mask. "Tell her, Your Highness. Let the bride understand what she married."
Kane's face went blank.
The executioner reached beneath his cloak and drew out a thin black seal. Unlike the royal seal Kane had crushed, this one carried a single word in old script.
TRAITOR.
"The city has waited twelve years to watch you die," the executioner said. "You should be honored."
Kane's breath stopped.
The executioner turned toward Nora. "You signed a contract with the last son of House Rhoan. The vanished heir of the Thunder Crown. The butcher of the royal court. A traitor wanted across all of Asterfall."
Nora looked at Kane. "Is that true?"
"Not all of it."
"Which part?"
The storm answered for him.
Lightning blasted outward.
Every execution officer flew off their feet. The marble altar split down the center. The black frame collapsed in a shower of brass limbs and crystal shards.
Nora's boots left the floor.
Kane caught her before she struck the wall. One arm locked beneath her knees. The other braced her against his chest as thunder rolled through the chapel.
Her teeth clicked together.
His face hovered inches from hers. Heat poured through the fabric between them. His breath came fast, but his eyes stayed fixed on hers.
"Do you believe them?" he asked.
Nora's pulse jumped beneath the contract ring. "I believe you're leaving something out."
"That wasn't my question."
She tightened her grip on his torn shirt. "No. I don't believe them."
The storm faltered.
Silver drained from his eyes, leaving gray behind. For the first time since the doors exploded, he looked less like a weapon and more like a man standing one bad breath away from becoming one.
Then the ceiling cracked.
Kane turned and ran.
He carried Nora through falling stone and shattered glass. Behind them, the Execution Bureau shouted orders. Arc-lamps flashed through the smoke. A bolt hit the floor beside Kane's heel and sprayed molten marble across the aisle.
Nora pointed through the wreckage. "The side wall!"
"I see it."
"Then go left!"
"I'm avoiding the people shooting at us."
"You were going right."
"That was part of the plan."
"You have a plan?"
"Survive first. Explain later."
A burning tapestry tore loose from the wall. Behind it waited a narrow service door.
Kane kicked it open.
A maintenance shaft stretched beyond it, packed with pipes, cables, and the deep groan of Asterfall's engines.
He set Nora down.
Her legs folded at once.
Kane caught her against the wall. One hand planted beside her head while his other arm kept her upright.
The wall pressed cold through her clothes. His heat gathered in front of her, close enough to make her forget the soldiers for half a second.
"You're hurt," he said.
"So are you."
"I can walk."
"You're glowing."
"Occupational hazard."
"Being a royal traitor?"
His eyes sharpened.
Behind them, boots thundered across the chapel floor.
The executioner shouted, "Seal the shafts! Don't let them reach the lower lines!"
Nora lowered her voice. "You're the vanished heir."
"Yes."
The answer came too fast.
"The Thunder Crown was destroyed."
"They tried."
"You were supposed to be dead."
"I was supposed to be a lot of things."
"And you married me because?"
Kane glanced at the ring binding them. His thumb brushed once over the metal at her finger.
The touch lasted less than a second. It still burned.
"Because you were the only person in that chapel who could keep me alive."
"That's not the whole answer."
"No."
"Then give me the rest."
The shaft trembled. Dust slipped from the ceiling between them.
Kane stepped away first. "We have less than a minute."
"For what?"
"For the Bureau to close every exit."
He reached for a dead machinery panel. Blue sparks snapped from his fingers. The metal cover unlocked with a groan.
Nora forced herself upright. "Where does this lead?"
"Undercity maintenance lines."
"Do you have someone down there?"
Kane paused.
The hesitation traveled through the contract like a tug on a wire.
"Maybe."
"That's reassuring."
"It's the truth."
The chapel door at the end of the shaft burst open.
Kane's head turned. The storm returned to his eyes.
"Run."
Nora ran.
The tunnel swallowed them. Pipes hissed on both sides, spitting steam across her cheeks. Kane followed close behind, one hand catching the wall whenever his balance slipped.
The farther they went, the harder the contract ring pulsed.
Nora looked back. "You're losing control."
"I'm aware."
"Then let me help."
"I said no."
"You can't keep ordering me around."
Kane caught her wrist and pulled her behind a support column as a searchlight swept across the tunnel. His fingers tightened over the contract ring, stopping the silver current before it reached his arm.
"I can if it keeps you alive," he said.
The light passed. Somewhere ahead, metal groaned and a lock disengaged.
Kane released her wrist and stared into the darkness beyond the service gate.
A woman's voice came through the opening. "Kane, you brought the bride. Good. Now tell me—did she survive the truth?"
Nora's ring flared, and the gate began to open.