Page 69 of Zenith Tower

“That could mean anything here.”

“Tonight, if Marrow has his way. Tomorrow if I have mine.”

She opened the door and left without waiting for the steward to escort her.

Kieran stared after her.

“I dislike her less than I did,” he said.

I looked down at our joined hands. “You’ll tell them?”

“Astra.” He waited until I met his eyes. “I chose you. They can summon every reader in the mountain and I will keep saying it.”

The line warmed between us.

The healer returned before evening and decided Kieran no longer needed someone beside him at every moment. A steward took me back toward my room.

Caspian waited where the two corridors joined.

He had changed his shirt since the day before, but not slept enough. The strain showed around his eyes and in the careful way he held his shoulders. The steward stopped within sight and gestured for us to keep the conversation brief.

“Is he stable?” Caspian asked.

“The healer thinks so.”

“And you?”

“I’m standing.”

“You look exhausted.”

I glanced at the steward. The water ran loudest in the shallow recess beside my door.

“Walk with me,” I said.

We moved toward my room. The steward remained at the crossing, close enough to watch us and too far away to hear over the water.

“The administrator came to see the bond,” I said quietly. “Marrow left Kieran’s consent out of his report.”

Caspian’s face hardened. “Deliberately?”

“She didn’t say.”

“Marrow doesn’t omit details by accident.”

“The Council may call it imposed.”

He looked at the completed line at my wrist. “Kieran will correct the record.”

“That’s the plan.”

“Then we make sure he does it in front of witnesses.”

He meant it. I felt the certainty and the hurt together.

“There’s something else,” he said.

I stopped outside my door.