"He shouldn't be here."
"New arrangement." I said. "I want to try a three-way link. Both bonds open at once. Vane anchors me while I go into your memories."
The change was immediate. Noah's spine straightened. The banked red at his collar deepened by a shade.
"No."
"Noah—"
"Those fragments are mine. What's left of me is in that fire, in those halls. I agreed to let you see them. Not him."
Vane's voice cut through. Cold. Precise.
"Then we leave. Right now." He came off the wall. One step. Enough to put him between Noah and me. "I'm not putting my partner's life in the hands of a man who can't tell her apart from a dead soldier."
The room held very still. Noah's jaw worked once. His eyes moved between Vane and me, calculating something I could feel but not read.
"If he interferes,"
