Page 77 of Zenith Tower

The strap closed over Hale’s wrist while copper light still moved beneath his skin.

They had taken us down one level and through a door I had never seen open. The chamber beyond was narrower than the panel room, with a stone table fixed to the floor and silver water running through a channel beneath its center. Hale sat on one side. I had been placed opposite him. Caspian and Kieran remained near the door with a steward beside each of them.

The chair at the head of the table stood empty.

The summons had carried the administrator’s seal. Marrow had begun without her.

A reader drew the second strap across Hale’s other wrist. He turned his hand before she tightened it, leaving a little space beneath the leather.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Marrow stood beside the water channel. “The incomplete line now presents an immediate containment risk.”

“So you dragged us out of Hale’s room before it could close.”

His gaze moved over my wrist. The line had retreated when the stewards pulled us apart, but it remained darker than it had been that morning.

“Proximity has accelerated its development,” he said.

“You mean we chose it.”

“Choice does not alter the risk.”

Kieran stepped away from the wall. The steward beside him blocked his path.

“If you’re so frightened of the bond,” Kieran said, “keeping all four of us in the same room seems poorly considered.”

“Both ends of the incomplete Tether must remain visible,” Marrow said. “If the procedure transfers strain into either completed bond, those lines must be observed too.”

Caspian looked at the empty chair, then at the reader’s case. “What procedure?”

The reader opened the case.

Silver leads lay inside it, thin as wire and fitted at both ends with flat metal contacts.

Delphine’s voice returned with perfect clarity.They fixed silver leads along my arm and tried to draw light through them. Each time the Mark faded, they reset the instruments and tried again. On the last attempt, the line split.

I stood.

“No.”

A steward moved between me and the table.

Marrow did not look away. “Sit down.”

“Those are what they used on Delphine.”

The reader’s hands paused over the open case.

“Moreau underwent restorative reading,” Marrow said.

“It broke her Mark.”

“Her Mark was already failing.”

“And when she asked you to stop, you kept going.”

The unfinished line heated against my pulse. Hale watched me across the table, his face held in the stillness that meant he was measuring every body in the room.