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She pointed at me. “Do not.”

I froze.

“If one more person tries to help me stand because I’m pregnant, I may commit a crime.”

I sat back down. “Understood.”

“Good.”

She made it to the doorway, then stopped and glanced back. “I’m glad you came.”

“So am I.”

Her eyes held mine for a moment. “You don’t have to know what comes next yet.”

Something in my chest tightened.

She shrugged one shoulder. “Just thought somebody should say it.”

Then she left.

I stayed at the table for a while after. Thinking. Not planning.

There was a difference.

Veyr was asleep when I returned to the medical wing.

Really asleep.

Not the half-rest he used to call sleep. Not sitting against a wall with one hand near a weapon.

He lay flat on his back with his hair loose against the pillow. No coat, no boots, no weapon within reach. Nothing about him looked like Ghost.

The medical seals across his chest and side had been replaced, and silver-white ŭre moved beneath them in slow pulses. He was healing. Better than before, but nowhere near enough for him to belong anywhere except that bed.

I stood there longer than I meant to.

He looked younger asleep. Or maybe just less burdened.

The line between his brows was gone. His jaw was loose, his breathing even.

I sat quietly beside him.

For once, I had nowhere else I needed to be.

A few minutes later, his breathing changed.

His eyes opened.

No violent wake-up. No hand snapping toward a weapon.

Just silver-gray finding me.

“You came back.”

His voice was rough with sleep.

My chest tightened.