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“Yes.”

“You are not a tool, Isolde.”

Her fingers pause against my pulse.

“I know,” she says.

“No, I need you to hear me. Vaerith wants to use you to study me, and some old contract rot in your bloodline may have been designed for that, and I don’t care. You are not a clause. You are not a stabilizing variable. You are not an anchor because some dead bastard wrote it in a margin.”

Her eyes lift to mine, and the bond hums with something deep enough that I have to steady my breathing.

“What am I, then?” she asks.

Dangerous question.

The kind that could pull truth out of me faster than wisdom can stop it.

“You’re Isolde,” I say. “You’re the woman who insults monsters with accounting terminology and slices her own palm to protect people who should be protecting her. You’re the only person in this entire damned mess who looked at the hunger and saw behavior instead of verdict. That matters more than whatever Vaerith thinks he owns.”

For several seconds, she does not speak.

The old chamber creaks quietly around us. Water drips. The ward-lamp hums. Somewhere above, the city continues toward sunset, unaware that the next one may become a stage.

Isolde’s fingers slide from my wrist to my hand, and this time she threads them through mine.

The contact is simple.

The bond makes it feel anything but.

“You are better at reassurance when angry,” she says.

A laugh escapes me despite everything. “I’ll add that to my skill list.”

“It is not a long list.”

“Wounded.”

“You are also occasionally funny.”

“Occasionally?”

“Do not get greedy.”

I bring her hand closer, not quite to my mouth, because that would make the moment too soft and I am barely holding myself together as it is. “I will be there tomorrow.”

“I know.”

“No, I mean it. Not charging through the first window I see. Not letting Vaerith point me like a weapon. I’ll be there, watching the crowd, watching mirrors, watching you.”

“Corin—”

“I’m not asking permission.”

Her eyes narrow. “That is a poor habit.”

“I’m developing several.”

“If you attend, you must remain hidden unless intervention becomes necessary.”