Page 87 of Zenith Tower

They took him toward the eastern stair. Before they reached the turn, Kieran asked where they were going, following the rule we had made after Hale’s removal.

No one answered him.

I watched until the gray of the stewards’ coats disappeared below the stair. The bond stretched with the distance but did not break. Kieran’s fear remained, but his pulse steadied by force.

Marrow stayed beside me.

“His file and yours are now cross-referenced,” he said. “Any attempt to reach him will be added to his review.”

“The Council wrote that rule,” I said. “You chose to use it.”

His thumb moved along the edge of Kieran’s file. In the water-light, the skin beneath his eyes looked bruised.

“After Sadie,” I said. “You know what indefinite review means.”

“I know exactly what it means.”

“And you’re sending him anyway.”

“I am sending him because his Mark reacted when you reached for a bond that is not his.” Marrow looked toward Hale. “The Council believes the lines are not behaving independently. If they are right, separating you from Hale will not contain whatever passed through Kieran’s Mark tonight.”

My stomach turned.

Hale and I had chosen the bond before Marrow interrupted us. It remained unfinished, but distance had not made it weaker. Now Kieran’s healed Mark had answered when I reached for Hale.

“You don’t know what that means,” I said.

“No. I intend to find out before the Council chooses its own method.”

“By doing what?”

He did not answer.

Below us, the stewards turned Hale back toward the western corridor.

“Wait,” I said.

Hale looked over his shoulder.

For a moment, the line shone between us again, fainter now but unbroken.

Then the western door closed behind him.

Marrow followed Kieran down the eastern stair.

Caspian waited until both lower doors had shut before releasing my arm.

“They took Kieran east,” he said. “Hale went west.”

“They’re separating the routes as well as the rooms.”

We went back to Kieran’s doorway. The bedcover lay half folded where he had left it, and his cup remained on the corridor floor near my feet. Across from us, Hale’s room had already been stripped bare.

Green-gold fear pulsed beneath my skin.

I pressed my palm over the bond. “I’m here.”

Kieran could not hear the words. I said them anyway.