Page 53 of Zenith Tower

The administrator’s fingers pressed into the closed folder.

The green-gold line at my wrist warmed beneath my sleeve.

The administrator saw my hand close over it.

“Show me,” she said.

I pushed my sleeve back. The silver line from Caspian and the rain-dark line from Hale had not changed. Only the green-gold had brightened, stopping at the same unfinished edge against my skin.

She stood so quickly that the chair legs scraped against the stone.

Marrow straightened. “Administrator?”

She looked from Kieran’s shoulder to my wrist. Her face had gone pale.

“Increase his monitoring,” she said.

Marrow did not move. “It is already twice daily.”

“Hourly. Beginning now.”

“That requires readers to be reassigned from the lower infirmary.”

“Then reassign them.” She gathered the loose pages in front of her, but one slipped sideways beneath her hand. “Record every change in temperature, color, sensation, and range. However small.”

“You recognize this,” I said.

She looked at me.

“You knew which change to ask about.”

The room remained silent.

“What do you think is happening?” Caspian asked.

The administrator squared the page that had slipped. “The review is concluded.”

“Kieran deserves to know what frightened you,” I said.

Her eyes moved once more to the green-gold at my wrist. “I don’t know enough yet.”

She left through the side door. The readers followed with their papers held close, none of them looking at Kieran.

Marrow stayed.

Kieran watched the closed door. “She looked at me like she’d seen this before.”

“Or read it,” Caspian said.

“What frightened her?” I asked Marrow.

His attention remained on the door she had used. “Whether she knows or only suspects, she wasn’t willing to say it in front of three readers.”

“Then ask her when no one is writing.”

“Include me this time,” Kieran said. “I’m tired of being the last person told what my death might look like.”

Marrow looked at Kieran. “I intend to.”