"You are very good at telling yourself things."
He flinched, a tiny wince almost hidden in the muscles around his eyes.
"I have work," he murmured, recovering his tone with effort. "I will explain everything, but not today." His gaze flicked to Luci, took in the mass and the breath and the sedative drag, then returned. "You will cooperate with Dr. Orhan."
The creature lifted its head.
Cooperate?
Apparently, that word didn't mean what she thought it meant.
Sera's jaw loosened so she could answer without grinding enamel into dust. "Will I."
"Yes." The word did not carry threat. It carried certainty, which landed worse. "You are safe here. That is more than I could promise you outside, given your condition."
"My condition."
Orhan resumed her checklist as if the emotional geometry at the glass were a film on a screen behind her. "We are wasting time. Baselines first. Then imaging. Then tissue."
