“I rose earlier again,” he says.
“I noticed.”
A pause. His thumb traces my knuckles.
“I meant to ask you before, has Mira said anything to you?”
“Not since the night Seraphina left.” I shift closer. “She sits in the east garden. Doesn’t eat unless Dr. Dalton brings it to her.”
“She watched her mother get taken through a hole in the world and disappear.”
“I know.”
“I should talk to her.”
“She doesn’t want to talk. She wants her mother back.”
His thumb stops. Starts again.
“Nadia’s trail went cold,” he says. “Marcellus pulled the trackers back.”
“I bet he’s not happy about it.”
“Marcellus is happy when the perimeter is airtight and nobody makes decisions without consulting him first.”
“So never.”
His chest moves against my back.
The chain sits in my pocket.
The light behind the shutters shifts from white to amber to nothing.
He leans over to press his mouth where he presses it every morning. Ritual. Cool lips tracing the line where the chain usually sits.
Oh, shit! He’s about to notice.
He goes very still. His mouth stays at my throat. Not moving. Then, slowly, he sits up.
His eyes go to the empty space where the chain used to lie.
“Celeste.”
“I’ve been going outside during the day. Every morning since the battle. Lying next to you, waiting for you to go under, then slipping out,” I say abruptly.
The best way through it is to do it.
He holds still.
“Dormancy can’t compel me anymore. It hasn’t been able to since before the last battle.”
Silence.
“My power changed. It’s not just moving things anymore. I can feel inside things now, past the surface. I can tell what they’re made of. Where they’d break.” I stop. “Living things, too.I reached for a bird this morning without meaning to. Mapped the fault line before I could pull back. That’s why I’ve been going outside. I didn’t want to practice in a building full of people I…” I stop again. “I was going to tell you once I understood it.”
His jaw is set. His eyes are flat.
I reach into my pocket and set the chain on the sheets between us.
