“And then he left.”
“That’s all?”
She shook her head.
Her fingers pressed into the bread until it split.
“I heard him talking to Caswell outside my door.”
“What did they say?”
“Not much. I think they knew I was listening.”
“But you heard something?”
She bit her lip and exhaled.
“Zenith Tower.”
The dark shape beyond the north wall came back to me unbidden: narrow windows, sharp roofline, moonlight catching on stone.
The thing Kieran had refused to talk about.
“What is the tower?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “They stopped talking after that.”
I tried to find something reassuring to say.
“They may only be moving your file there,” I offered.
It was a stupid thing to suggest.
Delphine knew it.
So did I.
She looked at me and shook her head.
Neither of us believed that.
The dining hall held its volume.
Then the main doors opened.
Caspian Ashford entered with Cosima Verraine on his arm.
She was speaking quietly, her hand resting on his sleeve. He bent his head to listen, attentive enough that the gesture looked intimate from across the hall.
It probably was intimate.
Or it had been practiced until everyone in the room knew what it was supposed to mean.
My Mark burned even hotter.
Caspian stopped mid-step.
Cosima’s fingers tightened on his arm.
