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I answered him anyway.

That’s not possible,I sent flatly.

Black looked at me.I know it’s not possible, doc, not in any rational way. But she does. She knows him. She thinks she does, at least.

I looked back at the girl.

Black was right. She looked at Nick with recognition, even with love. The too-wet softness in her eyes was nearly awe at his presence there, a disbelieving gratitude.

Still staring at him, taking in the contours of his face, she focused on his eyes.

“Wrong,” she whispered.

I jumped. Until then, I hadn’t been sure she could speak.

She shook her head, visibly upset. “Wrong.”

I gave Nick the barest glance.

The look on his face was pure rage. It wasn’t at the girl.

“Take off your contact lenses,” I murmured to him.

Nick jumped and glanced at me.

Then, hearing what I’d said, making sense of it belatedly, he hesitated, then reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small case with two eye compartments, and flipped open the lids on each. He reached up delicately and plucked first one contact lens, then the next, and put them in the round eye slots.

He blinked a little, presumably to clear his vision, then looked back at the girl.

He smiled at her. “Better?”

Relief filled her expression. She nodded, and her expression was almost shy.

“Pretty,” she said in a low voice.

Black grunted. I could tell he wanted to make a crack, and I knocked him sharply with my elbow.

Don’t,I warned.Not now. She feels safe with Nick.

I wouldn’t dare, doc. I might think it, and say it later, but I won’t ever in front of her.

Black’s thoughts felt profoundly sad, and I swallowed at the intensity there. Still watching the girl, he wiped his eyes, then crouched down to get closer to the floor.

“He is dead,” Black told her in Prexci, his voice gentle. “The man who lived here.”

She tore her eyes off Nick, seemingly with an effort.

She stared up at Black in shock.

“Dead?” she whispered.

She spoke the same language he did.

Black nodded.

“Did you kill him?” she asked, softer.

Black glanced at me, then back at the girl. He shook his head. “No.”