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He kept moving slowly while I shook, murmuring against my skin until my body finally began to loosen again.

Then his arm tightened around me.

He pressed his forehead against the back of my neck and came with a long, broken groan, his whole body tensing behind mine before he finally went still.

Afterward, we stayed tangled together in the dark.

The sweat cooled between us while his heartbeat gradually slowed against my back. We watched the light around my wrist fade from bright silver to the soft glimmer I was used to.

Silas still had not let go of me.

I did not think he intended to.

"What was that for?" he asked eventually, his voice soft against my hair.

I thought about the empty floorboards, the missing door, and the warm voice telling me to explain.

"I wanted to feel like I belonged to myself," I said.

He was quiet for a long time.

Then he kissed the back of my neck, just below my ear.

"You do," he said. "You always have."

A few moments later, he began to hum under his breath.

This time, I slept.

When I woke, the bed was empty but still warm.

On the washstand beside the little carved wren, Silas had left a fresh dressing and a folded note written in square capital letters.

GONE TO ODA. STAFF. EAT SOMETHING.

I was still smiling about it an hour later when a gray-robed porter knocked at the foot of the tower and told me that the Headmistress would see me at nine.

Her rooms occupied the top of the west tower. They were much as I might have imagined them if I had ever allowed myself to wonder: high-ceilinged, circular, and crowded with books, dried herbs, and feathers. Tall windows faced in every direction, and wooden perches had been built into the walls at different heights, their surfaces worn smooth from years of use.

She did not offer me a chair.

Instead, she sat on the deep stone sill of the eastern window with her feet tucked beneath her gray robes. She watched me in silence for several seconds before speaking.

"The word Hollow has been struck from your record, pending review."

For a moment, I did not know what to say.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me. Mr. Aske has declined to countersign the change, and the Council will review the matter whenever they decide it suits them."

"Then what happened to my Hollow review?"

"It never took place. Aldric Vance used the Chair's exceptional authority to replace it with a combat assessment."

"He was allowed to do that?"

Oda's eyes narrowed.