"I'm fine," Adryel said.
"You were just grabbed off a transport ramp by a Kerde policing guard who turns out to be a Rhysgarrds operative," Dhomhes said pleasantly. "You'll see the medic."
She opened her mouth.
"He's right," Stron said.
She closed it again. Looked at Stron like she was deciding whether to argue. Decided against it, which told him more about how she was actually feeling than anything she'd said.
Dhomhes excused himself.
And then it was just the two of them in the narrow maintenance tunnel, the yellow light still throwing everything into shadow, the refineries still grinding away overhead like nothing had happened.
Stron looked at her for a long moment.
"The chip," he said. "What is it?"
She met his gaze. He could see her deciding something. Working through it the way she worked through everything — fast, private, practical.
"Evidence," she said finally. "Against the Rhysgarrds. I've been carrying it since Kerde." She paused. "I don't have it on me anymore."
"Where is it?"
She reached up and touched the family crest pendant at his chest. Just once. Just the edge of it, her fingers light against the metalwork.
Then she dropped her hand and looked at him.
It took him a moment.
And then it didn't.
"You—" He stopped. Started again. "In the underground. The kiss."
"I didn't plan it," she said. "I just— I knew you'd protect it. Even if you didn't know you were doing it."
He looked down at the pendant. Then at her.
"You trusted me with the most dangerous thing you own," he said. "Before you even knew what I was to you."
She didn't answer. But her eyes did.
He pulled her against him, one hand at the back of her head, and held her there in the yellow dust-thick light of the maintenance tunnel while the refineries groaned and shuddered around them.
"We need to move," he said into her hair.
"I know," she said against his chest.
Neither of them moved for another moment.
Then he shifted, his hand moving to her waist to guide her toward the door, and she made a sound she clearly hadn't intended to make.
He went still.
"Adryel."
"It's nothing," she said immediately.
He stepped back and looked at her. Really looked. His hand moved carefully to her side, just below her ribs, and even that light pressure made her jaw tighten.
