Page 25 of Zenith Tower

He slipped into the corridor before either of us could offer to go with him.

Caspian closed the door. Kieran’s spare shirt was folded badly on the shelf, his clean cup stood beside the bed, and his ledger remained hidden beneath his clothes. I could not look at the empty bed for long.

I had promised to protect his ledger when he could barely breathe. Now the Tower had a copy and a classification I did not understand.

Untethered association.

I crossed to the shelf and checked that the original was still there.

“You’ve done that twice,” Caspian said.

“It hasn’t moved.”

“No.”

I let the shirt fall back over it. “They know Kieran isn’t Untethered. His records say exactly what he is.”

Caspian stood beside the table, watching the last corner of Hale’s map turn black. “The classification may describe the association, not Kieran.”

“His association with me.”

“Possibly. The file gives us nothing firmer.”

“They measured all four of us when we arrived,” I said. “They separated us before they asked anything about my Mark.”

“They asked about my bond.” Caspian rubbed his thumb across the silver line at his wrist. “When it formed. Whether its strength had changed since we crossed the bridge. Whether I could feel your pain through it.”

“You never told me that.”

“Kieran was barely standing. It did not seem the most urgent part of the morning.”

I thought of Hale returning from his own examination with his jaw locked, refusing to say what they had asked. Kieran had made light of his questions in the corridor. We had treated the separate reviews as another way to control us.

“What if they weren’t only examining each of you?” I asked. “What if they were measuring what happens to my Mark around you?”

Caspian looked toward the hidden ledger. “Kieran’s line is still open. Ours is complete. They may be comparing them.”

“And Hale’s line. We don’t even know what they asked him.”

“We don’t know that this is what they’re doing at all.”

I sat on the edge of Kieran’s bed. The blanket had beenfolded since the morning they carried him away. I pulled it loose and spread it over the mattress, more to give my hands something to do than because he would need it tonight.

“But why?” I asked. “Why measure all three of you to understand me?”

“Your Mark formed three lines. They may never have seen that before.”

“Then why Sadie?” I thought of the folders filling the archive shelves. “Something in her file was close enough to mine that they knew to compare Kieran with her.”

“We don’t know what that similarity was.”

“No. But they think Sadie’s case can tell them something about mine.”

“Marrow knew I was looking for Delphine. Kieran’s copy was sent straight to a comparison with Sadie Corwin. They knew where to look as soon as they had his measurements.”

“That still doesn’t tell us whether they prepared for you specifically.”

“No. It tells us the comparison wasn’t improvised when Kieran arrived.”