Page 111 of Pocket Wife

I bow my head until my forehead touches hers.

“Yes.”

She pulls me closer, and for a few minutes we simply hold each other while the night presses against the window. I can still feel myself inside her, can still feel the warmth of her body wrapped around mine.

Then Lucy shifts, looking at the closed door.

“We should go back,” she says.

“In a moment.”

“A moment?”

I kiss her shoulder, her throat, one corner of her smile. “I am a legal historian. I am permitted to stretch definitions of time.”

She laughs again, and this time it is lighter. “You are impossible.”

“Likely.”

She shakes her head, but her hand stays in mine. I pull out slowly, regretting the loss of contact even as I gather her against me. We dress in the quiet, helping each other with fastenings and brushes of fingers that linger longer than necessary. She winces slightly as she pulls on her trousers, and I kiss her temple in apology.

When we step out of the storage room, the corridor is empty. The hall has emptied. The witnesses have gone to rest.

Lucy squeezes my hand once.

“We go together,” she says.

“Together.”

She lets go, because the fight is still waiting.

But the bond remains, bright and steady, carrying the promise of everything we have chosen.

CHAPTER 35

LUCY

The words on the cylinder do not feel like an invitation.

They feel like a test.

When all hands answer, open.

The meeting hall stays standing beneath the glow of the tribunal display. No one cheers. No one rushes forward. Even Torren, whose voice usually fills any empty space it finds, has gone quiet on the cistern feed.

I read the line until the meaning settles into my bones.

All hands have answered.

Now the valley has to decide whether it is brave enough to be heard.

Adjudicator Salo speaks first. “Emergency continuity panel, the registry has responded to verified quorum. Opening the cylinder under neutral shield may create irreversible evidentiary exposure. The tribunal requires formal consent from the recognized panel.”

Advocate Sen steps in at once. “Helix objects to any opening without independent corporate examination.”

“Denied,” Salo says.

“Then Helix requests delay pending technical counsel.”