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“Yes.”

My head snapped toward him.

Talia’s expression changed too.

Darev added immediately, “Not remove it. Affect attention, instinct, protectiveness, attraction. The same way fear or anger can influence judgment.”

That did not improve anything.

Talia looked at me again. “You were sent to kill me.”

The words landed harder in this room than they had anywhere else.

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t.”

“No.”

Darev went very still.

I saw the moment he understood.

Not everything.

Enough.

His gaze shifted to me. “You did not complete an authorized order.”

“No.”

“Because of her?”

“Because the mission was compromised.”

Darev studied me.

I disliked it.

Talia did too, apparently.

“He has reasons,” she said.

I looked at her.

She shrugged slightly. “Real ones.”

That should not have mattered.

It did.

Darev’s gaze moved between us again. “Then recognition, if it exists, is one factor among several.”

“It does not exist,” I said.

Talia exhaled. “Can we call it ‘possibly exists’ so he stops repeating himself?”

Darev smiled. “Yes.”