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“I promised Lily. Ipromisedher I’d bring you to her,” he said.

His words hit me in the chest that time, bringing up a different kind of pain.

My vision blurred, but I only nodded, looking down at him.

“Okay,” I said.

“So I want to leave here, if we’re going to leave,” he said, still watching my face. “Then I want to come back.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding again.

He still wore the infiltrator’s mask when I met his gaze.

He looked at me directly though, and that time, I could see past it. I could feel things in his light, enough to know he was a lot more open than he was pretending. The submission wasn’t all an act, or even an attempt to appease me. Past the mask, past the parts of himself he was still afraid to show me, past the grief I felt on him, that feeling of deprivation, of fear that I would leave, of relief that I’d come back––I could seehim,somehow.

I could see him maybe clearer than I’d ever seen him.

“Allie,” he said, when I still hadn’t said anything. “I don’t think I can handle you being around anyone else until then. Just Lily… and then just me.” He cleared his throat, still wearing his infiltrator’s mask. “Is that all right?”

I thought about his words.

I thought about his question.

Then I nodded, slowly.

“Yes,” I said. “Yes, Revik. That’s all right.”

Chapter40

New Eyes

It was strange leaving the tank that time.

I was acutely aware of all of them staring at us.

I was acutely aware of them staring at me, especially.

Most of what I picked up in those stares felt like concern.

I watched them look at us, and stare at where Revik held my hand. I felt them notice, sharply, how Revik inserted himself between me and them. Then again, there was no way theywouldn’tnotice that, given everything.

Revik also shielded my light.

It wasn’t a casual shielding, like he might have done out of possessiveness, or simply to put some distance between me and other seers in the immediate vicinity. He’d done that kind of thing before, although I couldn’t remember him doing it recently. Really, I couldn’t remember him doing it since I was pregnant in New York.

This felt different.

It even felt different from when I’d been pregnant with Lily.

This time, he blocked my light from the rest of the construct entirely.

He didn’t want anyone near my light at all, apart from him.

When Neela got too close, with us standing a few yards away from the security station, Revik used his light to shove her back.

He did it even harder when Declan’s light ventured too near to mine.

I saw the two of them exchange looks.