Page 56 of Zenith Tower

“What?” Astra asked.

The reader closed the ledger. “The response increased during proximity.”

“Is that making him worse?”

“I can’t determine that from one interval.”

She left before Astra could ask another question.

We expected the steward to separate us. Instead the reader returned with Marrow several minutes later.

“The administrator has extended the observation,” Marrow said. “Astra remains here until further notice. The door stays open, and hourly checks continue for both of you.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because your readings changed together.”

He withdrew, leaving the steward at the door.

Astra rested her head beneath my jaw again. The shoulder still burned, and my right hand remained numb at the fingertips.

Another knock came before either of us slept. Astra stayed against my side while I told the reader to enter.

Astra

The reader had already measured my wrist. Her fingers were still against Kieran’s throat when his hand locked around mine.

She looked up sharply.

Kieran had been half asleep beside me, his breathing shallow but even. Now every muscle in his arm had gone rigid. His eyes opened without finding either of us.

A moment earlier, his thumb had rested loose against the side of my hand. I had been watching the pale light travel over the blanket and wondering whether he was warm enough. Then his fingers closed hard enough to grind my rings into my skin.

“Kieran?”

His back arched away from the bed.

The sound that left him stripped his voice of everything familiar. Green-gold light split through the Mark at his shoulder, a bright jagged line where his skin should have hidden it.

I had seen that light through his collar when pain weakened his control. I had watched it brighten when I came near.This time its edges were white, the color burned out of the center, and the skin around it had begun to gray.

“Something’s wrong.” His grip crushed my fingers. “Astra, something??—”

His body seized again before he could finish.

The reader pulled the emergency cord. A bell rang beyond the door, hard and immediate. She shouted for a healer while I held on to Kieran’s hand and called his name.

The iron note carried into the corridor. Locks turned. Boots struck stone. Kieran gave no sign that he could hear the alarm or my voice beneath it.

The sheet dragged loose beneath his heels. The fractured light spread toward his collarbone, then recoiled.

“Don’t touch the Mark,” the reader said.

“I’m not.”

She opened the ledger with shaking hands and looked from the last entry to the light at his shoulder.

“What?” I demanded.