I didn’t fall asleep right away. The silence after the ball was too sharp in my ears, the bandage still pulled at my side, and as I lay in the dark, I kept catching myself repeating the words “cover—signal—stop” in my head, as if memorizing some drill sheet. It made that kind of restlessness build up inside me that makes you feel as if your own skin is too tight. So I sat up, pulled my cloak around me, and glanced toward Darius in the dim light—he was sitting by the door, back straight, eyes open, perfectly still in the way only someone used to vigilance can sit.
“I have a request,” I finally said, realizing that another hour of silence wouldn’t help. “Let’s stop this coded speech—at least when it’s just the two of us. I don’t want to live among command words or talk like a guard on shift
