Page 80 of Zenith Tower

The administrator stood on the threshold. Two stewards waited behind her, neither with a weapon drawn.

Her gaze passed over the overturned chair, the fallen leads, Kieran braced beside the table, and Caspian holding a steward’s arm against the wall. Then she saw the empty chair at the head of the table.

“You began without me.”

“The Tether was approaching completion,” Marrow said.

She crossed to the table and lifted the scorched lead by its cloth-wrapped end. “You were authorized to assess it.”

“Assessment confirmed the need for immediate stabilization.”

Her gaze moved from the blackened contact to the burns on Hale’s arm. “Permanent alteration requires panel authority.”

“It remains incomplete.”

“It also remains attached to two people who refused the procedure.”

Marrow glanced at the reader. “Record the resistance to stabilization and the response to proximity.”

“Close the case,” the administrator said.

The reader looked between them, then gathered the silver leads with shaking fingers.

The administrator crossed to Hale and released the remaining strap herself. A dark band circled his wrist. The copper light beneath it faded slowly but did not disappear.

“All four of you are returning to the residential wing.”

Caspian released the steward. Kieran retrieved the baton from beneath the table and placed it on the far side before stepping away.

Hale came around the table to me. His hand stopped short of my wrist.

“Can I see it?”

I turned my arm into his palm.

The unfinished line warmed beneath his fingers. Its edge still ended near my pulse, neither shortened nor closed. Hale covered it with his palm.

The reader noticed. Her pencil moved once before the administrator shut the case over her page.

We left together.

No one spoke until the review chamber was two locked doors behind us. The administrator walked ahead with one steward. The other remained far enough back to give the illusion of privacy.

Hale’s sleeve stayed rolled above the mark left by the strap. Several small burns showed where the silver contacts had touched him.

“You knew how to get your hand free,” I said.

“I knew how to keep one strap loose.”

“You waited.”

His gaze moved to the bruise forming around my wrist. “He hadn’t touched you yet.”

Kieran rolled his shoulder beside us. “At least it didn’t work.”

Caspian looked back toward the locked doors. “That won’t comfort them.”

At the next turn, the administrator stopped.