Page 83 of Zenith Tower

I thought of the closed doors below us and the people behind them. Delphine would not be the only one to ask.

Footsteps approached the open door.

Marrow entered with two stewards behind him. His gaze settled on the directive in my hand, then moved to the administrator.

“You delivered it.”

“They have a right to know the terms governing their residence.”

Marrow’s expression did not change. “What matters now is compliance.”

He looked at Hale. “You have ten minutes to gather what you need.”

Hale pushed away from the wall.

I stepped toward him.

Every steward in the doorway moved.

Hale stopped before I did. The unfinished line pulled between us, warm and narrow, but he kept his hands at his sides.

“Not here,” he said.

I hated that he was right. A room full of stewards, Marrow watching for proof, and a Council order written to turn anycontact between us into a violation. Touching him now would give them grounds to move him somewhere worse.

“They didn’t break it,” I said.

“No.” His gaze dropped to my wrist. “And if anything changes, I’ll find a way to tell you.”

He went to his room with a steward before and behind him.

The administrator remained long enough to watch Marrow leave. When she turned back, her lips were pressed thin, the color gone from them.

“Do not mistake warning you for the ability to protect you,” she said quietly.

“I don’t.”

She nodded once and followed them into the corridor.

Kieran waited until her footsteps had faded. “We need a way to know where they take any of us.”

Caspian rose and closed the door as far as the order allowed. “We already know the shift patterns. Hale knows the lower corridors.”

“Hale is about to be locked inside one of them.”

“Which means we learn the route when they move him,” Caspian said.

I looked toward Hale’s room. A steward had gone inside. Another stood outside with a length of cord and a second ring of keys.

“If they summon one of us, we ask where they’re taking us before we leave,” I said. “If they refuse to say, the rest watch the route.”

Kieran nodded. Caspian did the same.

Hale returned carrying his coat and one folded shirt. The Tower had not allowed any of us enough possessions to make departure take ten minutes.

Marrow gestured toward the junction.

Hale walked between the stewards without looking backuntil he reached the turn. Then he stopped and found me across the length of the corridor.