We argued in the garage.

Leander stood between me and the car. His tie was gone. Blood from the cut at his neck had dried beneath his collar.

"You will not go alone."

"Mara will kill Eli."

"She expects you to obey."

"She trained me well."

"Then disappoint her."

I stepped closer. "Move."

He did not.

"The boy is nineteen," he said. "You are allowed to want him saved. You are not required to purchase his life with yours."

"That is how this works."

"That is how they taught you it works."

My fist struck the hood beside him.

The sound cracked through the garage.

He remained still.

"You don't know what they taught me."

"I know you turn every rescue into a punishment."

"Move."

"No."

I caught his shirt.

He caught my wrist.

For one second, Nocturne measured the angle of his throat.

Leander saw it.

His grip opened.

"If you need to hurt me to leave," he said, "do it."

The fight went out of my hand.

I released him.

"I hate you."

"I know."

"You arranged Prague. You tracked me for years. You put a contract between us and called it a choice."

His face tightened.

"I know."

"Stop saying that."

"What would you prefer?"

"A reason to trust you."

He reached into his pocket and placed a silver key in my palm.

The private-elevator key.

"Acheron's route runs beneath my headquarters," he said. "This opens every level. My accounts, my servers, my empire. Give it to Luca. Burn all of it if that gets Eli out."

The metal warmed between us.

"You would lose Cross Holdings."

"Then I'll find a better line of work."

I looked at the man who had bought a place beside me and now placed every locked door in my hand.

"You're still not coming."

"Agreed."

"That was easy."

"I'm going first."

Celeste drove.

Luca handled the city cameras from the back seat. Leander and I sat opposite each other in the armored van, knees touching whenever the road turned.

No one mentioned it.

The abandoned Cross terminal stood at the edge of the lake. Freight elevators descended beneath the loading floor.

Leander used the silver key.

The elevator opened.

Mara's voice came through the speaker.

"Only Rowan."

Leander looked at me.

I removed my gun and gave it to him.

Then my knives.

Then the wire hidden beneath my watch.

Luca stared. "That's all?"

I took a blade from my boot.

"Now it is."

Celeste took my coat before I entered the elevator.

In the pocket, she found the companion contract folded into a square.

She raised one eyebrow.

"Sentimental?"

"Evidence."

"Of poor judgment?"

"His and mine."

Leander heard.

The elevator indicator glowed above us. Mara waited somewhere below with Eli. Water moved behind old concrete. The entire terminal carried the hum of machinery built to erase lives.

"Give it to me," Leander said.

Celeste handed him the paper.

He unfolded it.

The black card from Prague fell out and landed at his feet.

Leander picked it up.

"You kept this too."

"It opens doors."

"It was a phone number."

"Same thing."

He turned the card over.

My handwriting covered the back: security rotations, blind spots, the names of guards who favored their left knees.

"You mapped my house on the first night."

"Second. I was tired."

"And still you stayed."

I looked at the elevator.

"At first, the exits were good."

"Later?"

The doors remained closed.

There was time for one honest answer. That made it dangerous.

"Later, you were."

He folded the contract carefully and placed it inside his coat.

"If we survive, I'm framing this."

"If we survive, I'm renegotiating."

"Upward?"

"Substantially."

Luca's voice came through the speaker. "I hate to interrupt whatever rich-person foreplay this is, but Mara has activated the elevator."

The indicator began descending.

Four.

Three.

Leander caught my hand.

Two.

"Rowan."

One.

"I know."

The doors opened.

Mara's voice filled the chamber.

"Only Rowan."

I stepped inside.

Leander's fingers slid from mine one by one.

The last thing I saw before the doors closed was his open hand.

The elevator descended.

At sublevel four, the doors opened onto a corridor lined with white tile.

Mara waited at the end.

Eli sat tied to a chair beside her. Blood marked his mouth, but he was upright.

"You chose attachment," Mara said.

"I chose the elevator."

"Still making jokes before you panic."

"You always hated improvisation."

She lifted her pistol. "On your knees."

I knelt.

"Acheron needs a director," she said. "Gideon Vale is dead. Adrian failed. The old investors want a name people fear."

"They should hire an accountant."

"They want Nocturne."

Eli shook his head.

Mara pressed the gun against him.

"Accept the position. He walks out."

"And the children?"

"Trained. Placed. Useful."

The blank corridor disappeared.

I saw stone floors. Thin wrists. A peppermint hidden in my fist.

"No."

Mara's mouth hardened.

The elevator chimed behind me.

Leander stepped out alone.

He carried no weapon.

"Take me," he said.

Mara laughed. "A criminal prince volunteering for chains."

"My access is worth more than his reputation."

"Leander—"

He did not look at me. "You wanted a route into Cross Holdings. I am the route."

Mara aimed at him.

Eli moved.

He snapped the chair leg against the floor, caught the broken wood, and drove it into her knee.

I crossed the corridor before she screamed.

The pistol fired.

Leander jerked backward.

I struck Mara once.

She hit the tile.

Then the emergency lights turned red.

Luca's voice came through the ceiling.

"We have a problem. The archive is purging. Five minutes until the lower levels flood."

Leander lay against the wall with blood spreading across his shirt.

This time, when I touched him, my hands shook.

The bullet had cracked the ceramic plate over Leander's heart.

He dragged in a shallow breath.

"That hurts."

"Good. Pain means you're alive."

"Your bedside manner is poor."

I pulled open his shirt and checked the skin beneath the vest. Purple already spread across his ribs.

Eli hauled Mara upright.

She leaned against him, smiling at me.

"He made you soft."

I removed the vest from Leander.

"You always confused softness with choice."

"He will die like the others."

My hand stopped.

Leander covered it with his.

Mara saw.

"Tomas called your name at the end," she said.

The corridor contracted.

Red lights.

White tile.

Leander's hand tightened.

"Rowan Hale," he said.

Mara kept speaking. "He asked why you didn't open the door."

"Rowan Hale."

The name reached through stone.

I looked at Leander.

He was hurt, unarmed, and exactly where I had told him not to be.

Alive.

Here.

"Eli," I said. "Take him."

The boy moved to Leander's side.

Mara laughed. "Still running."

I stood over her.

"No."

I took the peppermint from my pocket and placed it in her palm.

"I'm leaving you behind."

The emergency lights flashed faster.

Eli helped Leander toward the elevator.

Mara stared at the candy.

For the first time, her face lost its certainty.

I followed the others.

The elevator doors closed on her before she chose whether to come.