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We start moving again, taking the upper stairwell two steps at a time and pushing through the narrow maintenance passage toward the abandoned roof wing, the air growing colder with every floor we climb.

A brief orange flare appears behind us, disappearing again, like someone shielding a lighter. This time I know I’m not imagining it.

“Tell me you saw that.”

“Yeah.” Ciaran’s voice changes after that, dropping lower as he reaches back without looking and catches my wrist, pulling me closer behind him while his attention stays fixed on the darkness below us. He doesn’t let go.

We move faster, ascending the final staircase before slipping through the cracked doorway into the abandoned chamber.

The Noctis is still there beneath the dust sheets exactly where we left it. It looks elegant and wrong, and the room feels less abandoned than before, as though dragging the Noctis back into the light has disturbed something that had been sleeping inside Caervast for a very long time.

I stare at it before looking up at him. “Why did you bring me here?”

Ciaran glances at me while reaching for the dust-covered cloth. “Why not?”

“Do you already own your own Noctis or something?”

“No.” He pulls the covering away, his eyes lifting back to mine. “But this is your chance.”

I blink. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

His shoulder lifts. “It means I’m offering it to you.”

My mouth parts when he bends and grips the instrument before lifting it from its stand. “Ciaran, you can’t just⁠—”

“Watch me, mouse.”

The Noctis looks different in his hands somehow. Less like a forgotten thing hidden beneath dust sheets and more like something pulled back into the world where it belongs. Black wood curves beneath his grip, old silver detailing catching the moonlight spilling through the cracked windows while shadows carve across his shoulders and throat.

He jerks his head toward the door, then settles the Noctis into my arms. “Come on.”

Adjusting my grip on the Noctis, I glance down at the black wood resting against my chest. The instrument doesn’t belong to either of us, but for the first time since finding it, it doesn’t feel abandoned anymore.

Crossing back toward me, Ciaran presses a quick kiss against my forehead before nodding toward the door. “Try not to drop it.”

We slip back out across the roof terrace and into the narrow stairwell, moonlight giving way to cold stone and shadows as we start making our way back down through Caervast.

I watch him walking ahead of me and hate the thought that slips into my head.

Safe.

The word feels ridiculous, but the feeling is everything but. Ciaran Virel should probably be the last person in the world making me feel anything close to that. Too bad my heart doesn’t agree.

The walk back is a nightmare. Twice I catch movement behind us, shadows shifting at the edge of the corridor before disappearing again. When the lighter flashes deeper in the darkness for a second time, Ciaran swears beneath his breath, tightening his grip around my wrist without letting go.

We almost collide with two figures stepping out of the darkness ahead, and for one horrible second I think we’ve finally found whoever’s been following us. I stumble backward, and the Noctis nearly slips from my hands.

Then Rafe’s laugh echoes down the corridor. “Okay. That reaction was deeply offensive⁠—”

Ciaran lunges before he can finish, slamming his cousin back against the wall by the front of his jacket. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Pinned awkwardly against the stone, Rafe still looks more entertained than concerned. “Fuck’s sake, relax⁠—”

Beside him, Marius is already scanning the corridor behind us. “We thought someone was following you.”

I blink.

Good Light. It wasn’t all in my head.