Page 233

Her shoulders eased by a fraction. “Do you?”

“Yes.”

I stepped away from the table. Not toward her. Just enough to remove the terminal between us.

“If you want to go to Anik, I will take you.”

She went very still.

I continued before I could reconsider. “I will not prevent it.”

Her eyes searched mine. “Even if it exposes you?”

“Yes.”

“Even if the Veil calls you compromised?”

“They already have.”

“Even if it means Anik knows you faked your death?”

My jaw tightened. “Yes.”

That one cost more.

She heard it.

I could tell.

“And the other Ghosts?”

“I will disclose only what is necessary.”

“So you still intend to protect them.”

“Yes.”

Talia nodded slowly. “That makes sense.”

I had expected a challenge.

None came.

“I am not asking you to expose everyone or everything,” she said. “After all, exposure would be before the Crown, not before the public. What secrets must Veil keep from the Crown?”

I looked at her, at the careful line she was drawing.

Not for them.

For me.

“The Veil does not exist beneath the Crown in the way the military does.”

Her brow furrowed. “Meaning?”

“It serves the continuity of Zuna.”

“That sounds like a very elegant way of saying it answers to itself.”