Page 135 of Zenith Tower

I lowered my forehead to the edge of the mattress. My arm was still rigid between us, and I could not make my fingers release her.

Delphine’s repaired hand came to rest in my hair.

“I remember the lamp,” she whispered.

I looked up.

“There was a green shade. The man asking about you had ink on his left cuff.” Her eyes had gone distant, fixed on something beyond the infirmary wall. “I bit through my tongue so I wouldn’t answer. They wrote that down as deterioration of the faculties.”

“Do you remember his face?” the administrator asked.

Delphine searched for it. I watched the hope leave her.

“No.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

She looked at me sharply. “You told me you couldn’t return what was gone.”

“I know.”

“Then don’t apologize for giving me back what was left.”

A fist struck the door.

“Administrator.” Marrow’s voice came through the wood. “Open it.”

She tried to help me to my feet. My legs failed on the first attempt, and when I finally stood, I had to lean against the bed while she lifted the latch.

Marrow entered alone. His gaze went first to Delphine’s hand, then to the blood on mine. Whatever he had expected to find, it was not the clean silver lines resting against the blanket.

“Did you touch her Mark?” he asked me.

I was too tired to offer him the lie he had built the room to permit.

“Yes.”

His eyes closed briefly.

“She examined it with my consent,” Delphine said. Her voice was stronger now. “Then she repaired it with my consent. The administrator witnessed both.”

“That does not supersede a Council restriction.”

“Your healer could not stop the damage,” the administrator said. “Should we have waited to learn how far it would spread?”

Marrow looked at the nearly closed door behind him. The reader in the corridor had a clear view of Delphine’s healed hand from where he stood.

Marrow moved to shut the door, but the reader had already stepped back.

Boots retreated down the passage.

“Call him back,” the administrator said.

Marrow watched the empty doorway but did not move.

“He will report this to Walkin.”

“I know.”