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The Rift made those habits easier to see. At the Citadel, Jade always knew when someone might be watching, but out here exhaustion caught the moments she forgot. I had seen her wake before dawn to check the medical packs and give Alex the dry half of her blanket after his slipped against the tent wall. When Nykos developed another headache, she spent nearly an hour following him around camp, setting water beside him, taking the route map out of his hands and informing him every few minutes that the muscle beside his left eye was still twitching.

"Are you going to keep doing this?" he eventually asked.

"Until you stop pretending your head doesn't hurt."

"You already know it hurts."

"Knowing isn't permission."

He held out for another minute before his shoulders sagged. "Jade, will you heal my headache?"

"Yes."

Only then did she press her fingers to his temple, easing the tension around his eyes until he stopped squinting at the light. Jade would not cross a boundary someone had not opened for her, but she had no problem standing on the other side and making herself unbearable until they did.

Corian emerged from the command shelter with a route card in hand and asked for two people to check the western watercourse before the research team set the morning's observation markers. Jade volunteered before he finished speaking. I pushed away from the fire and joined her, while Ashter remained hidden beneath her sleeve and Dannian continued smiling behind the stakes.

I had taken the full Veylith form at camp and Jade carried the backpack with my clothes in without so much of an argument. I knew she was still uncomfortable with my nakedness after a shift, but I'll admit I enjoyed the blush that stained her cheeks, and the small lingering looks before she turned away.

By the time we reached the flooded channel Jade had checked beneath the same fallen branch three times.

The first time, she crouched several paces away and studied the pale wood, the mud around it and the water gathered between the roots. The second time, she moved closer and followed the underside with her eyes. On the third, she used the end of a narrow stick to disturb the leaves beyond it before stepping over.

There was nothing beneath the branch except two startled insects and a small green lizard that vanished into the ferns.

I waited on the other side without rushing her.

The Veylith form made waiting easier. Its body had been built for stillness, every heavy muscle capable of settling beneath near-black fur without losing the tension needed to move. Water cooled the scales along my shoulders and flanks. The luminous blue markings between them had faded to a low glow under the daylight, but I could still feel the magic moving through the borrowed shape, strongest along my spine and through the thick webbing between my paws.

Jade straightened and met my eyes.

"You can stop judging me."

I moved one ear.

Her eyes narrowed. "That was judgment."

It was a mosquito.

Explaining that would have required shifting back, and I preferred the Veylith body for the flooded western route. It could smell changes in the water before my human senses would have noticed the current, and the broad paws spread my weight across mud that had already swallowed one of Dannian's trainees to the knee. Corian had paired Jade with me because we were checking only the short loop around the edge of camp, but short did not mean safe in a Rift. The trapped Kelvarin had proved that.

Jade returned her attention to the branch, checking it once more without touching anything. She had spent the first two days after the mistake inspecting every root, vine and patch of disturbed ground with the rigid concentration of someone trying to work hard enough to erase six steps from the past. By the third, Corian had stopped letting her turn caution into punishment. He made her explain what she was checking and why, then sent her forward when she had an answer.

The difference was beginning to show. Her caution had not gone, but it belonged to the ground in front of her now rather than the memory behind it.

The rest of us had learned when to interfere. Alex distracted her with complaints about camp rations until she told him nobody was forcing him to eat the flavor he didn't like and I never pointed out I knew he was eating it so Jade would have the flavor she liked. Nykos took route maps from her when she tried to study them through dinner, and I put cups back into her hand when she forgot where she had left them. She glared at all of us, but she ate, drank and slept, which mattered more.

I had joined her this morning because she looked as though she intended to inspect every root in the jungle alone if nobody volunteered. The fact I wanted another excuse to take the Veylith form or be around her had nothing to do with it.

Jade stepped over the branch and consulted the waterproof route card in her hand. Damp strands had escaped her braid and stuck to the side of her neck. Her black shirt was already darkened across the shoulders by humidity, while mud covered both boots despite her careful steps.

"The channel should bend north beyond those trees."

I tasted the air. Water, wet bark, flowering vines and the sharp mineral scent of the blue moss growing along the bank. Beneath it sat the heavier odor of standing water and something small that had crossed the route recently.

I lowered my head.

Three sets of prints marked the mud beside the channel. Rounded paws, narrow claws and the shallow line left by a long tail. The rain had softened their edges, but they were recent enough that water had not filled them.