Page 28 of Zenith Tower

“Which means you intend to go back.”

She did not answer. She did not need to.

I glanced toward the shelf. “The original?”

“Still here.”

Some of the tightness in my chest eased. Not much. “At least Marrow doesn’t have the ledger itself.”

“For now,” Hale said.

At last Caspian said, “We should let him sleep.”

Hale looked prepared to object.

“I know where the cord is,” Astra said.

He looked at me instead.

“Go,” I told him. “Before I begin to feel cherished.”

That earned the smallest movement at the corner of his mouth. Before Caspian followed Hale, the silver line at Astra’s wrist brightened. Its twin answered beneath his cuff. They held each other’s gaze until the light dimmed.

Then they left, closing the door behind them.

Astra stayed in the chair.

“You can come closer,” I said.

“Can I?”

The question took what remained of the performance out of me.

“Yes.”

She sat beside me on the bed. Her hand hovered near my shoulder, then settled on my knee instead.

“They said you stopped breathing.”

“Briefly.”

“That doesn’t make it better.”

“No.”

I looked toward the pale blank in the wall. During the worst nights in the infirmary, I had tried to picture this room. I had never imagined the false window correctly. In memory, I kept giving it glass and darkness beyond, some proof that the mountain ended somewhere.

“I thought I knew what frightened me,” I said. “The pain. Losing the use of the arm. Being told there was nothing to do but wait.”

Astra’s thumb moved once across my knee.

“Then I woke up with Hale shouting at a healer and couldn’t draw breath enough to answer him.” I swallowed. “Iwas still in there. I could hear all of you. I simply couldn’t reach you.”

She took my left hand and pressed it between both of hers.

“I could see you through the glass,” she said. “They wouldn’t let me in.”

“I know.”