The first thing Liam did when he reached Lab V was not speak.

That, Mara decided immediately, was worse.

Lord Liam Sienna Canmore had several dangerous silences. There was the silence he used when calculating pressure tolerances. There was the silence he used when a minister spoke about infrastructure funding with the confidence of a drunk pigeon. There was the silence he used before telling someone exactly why their education had failed them.

This was not any of those.

This was the silence of a man who had walked directly to the main observation rail, placed both hands on the metal, and stared down at the Vanguard as if the enormous turbine beneath him might provide legal counsel, emotional stability, and perhaps a tunnel into another dimension.

The Vanguard turned below them with its usual impossible grace.

Red ether dragged through the lower intake rings in dense, glowing sheets, raw and volatile as blood under glass. The turbine caught it, compressed it, stripped it, forced it through the layered rotation channels until blue light burst along the secondary veins and white currents rose in clean, disciplined arcs toward the relay spine.

The whole chamber trembled with power.

Liam stared at it and felt absolutely nothing like a functioning adult.

Behind him, beyond the reinforced inner doors, Stanford stood in the external security corridor with Alexander.

The fact that they knew each other had been revealed within the first five minutes and had somehow made the entire day worse.

"Alexander," Stanford had said calmly.

"Stanford," Alexander had replied, with the expression of a man recognizing another professional problem on sight.

Then they had looked at each other in a way that suggested prior incidents, dangerous people, and enough shared experience to skip introductions entirely.

Liam had not asked.

He had enough problems.

He had so many problems.

He had marked Arik. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The thought arrived again, bright and catastrophic.

Liam’s hands tightened on the rail.

He had marked Arik Oberon Lyon, the Crown Prince of Agaron.

Son of Emperor Damian Lyon and Empress Gabriel von Jaunez.

The imperial heir whose ether signature had apparently changed so visibly that the imperial family knew by breakfast.

And Arik had marked him back.

Liam shut his eyes.

No. No, that did not improve when phrased differently.

Arik had marked him.

Arik’s mark sat beneath the collar of Liam’s soft black shirt, still too new, too present, too warm against the side of his neck. His own body recognized it with humiliating contentment. His ether recognized it. The bond recognized it. Every time Liam tried to think like a reasonable engineer, some hidden part of him purred like a traitor and informed him that Arik was alive, close enough, and pleased with his continued breathing.

Liam opened his eyes again and stared down into the rotating ether veins of the Vanguard like a man considering whether it was possible to legally throw himself into his own infrastructure project.

It probably was not.

Mara approached carefully, tablet tucked under one arm.

"Liam."

He did not move.

"That tone means you’re either having an existential crisis or recalculating turbine ratios."

"Yes."

"That did not answer the question."

"It answered it spiritually."

Mara stopped beside him and leaned one elbow against the rail, following his gaze toward the massive turning structure below. The red ether intake pulsed beneath them like the exposed heart of some engineered god.

"You look terrible," she informed him kindly.

"Thank you."

"You’re welcome."

Silence stretched again.

Then Liam said, very calmly, "I marked the Crown Prince of Agaron."

Mara nodded once.

"Yes." As the words left her mouth, she stilled and turned sharply to Liam. "You did what?!" she screeched.

The sound ricocheted through the upper observation deck with enough force that someone near the secondary diagnostics console dropped a wrench.

Far below them, the Vanguard continued rotating with complete indifference to emotional collapse.

Liam remained staring into the turbine like a man contemplating whether engineering licenses could be revoked for catastrophic personal decisions.

"I said it clearly," he replied.

"That is not the issue!" Mara hissed. "The issue is that you just calmly informed me you marked another person like you were discussing weather patterns."

Liam considered that.

"In fairness, the weather has also become hostile."

Mara stared at him in disbelief.

Then her expression changed.

Not because he had said Crown Prince of Agaron. The entire country already knew about the engagement announcement. Half the capital was currently choking itself on diplomatic speculation and romantic hysteria. Mara had expected political insanity from the moment George had attached Liam’s name to the Agaronian heir with official royal stationery.

No.

What shocked her was Liam.

Liam Sienna Canmore.

Liam, who once rejected a marriage negotiation because the other family attempted to discuss him before discussing his work.

The engineer, who viewed courtship rituals with the same enthusiasm most people reserved for chemical spills.

And the omega, who reacted to unwanted pheromones with the cold fury of a man preparing industrial litigation.

Liam had marked someone.

Liam sighed as he could read every thought Mara had about him. "He marked me too."

Mara blinked slowly.

"You," she said carefully, "voluntarily allowed another person near your throat."

Liam’s silence became deeply defensive.

Mara pointed at him with her tablet.

"Oh my gods."

"Mara."

"No," Mara said immediately. "You do not get to say my name in that tone after telling me you bonded with the Crown Prince of Agaron while staring into a turbine."

"It helps me think."

"That explains several safety concerns."

Liam exhaled and looked back down at the Vanguard.

Mara stared at the side of his neck, where the collar hid most of the mark but not enough to save either of them from the truth.

"You let someone near your throat," she said, quieter now.

Liam’s fingers tightened on the rail.

"That," she continued, "is the part I’m struggling with."

"So am I."

The answer was too honest.

Mara’s expression shifted, the panic thinning into something more careful.

Far below them, red ether compressed into blue, then white, clean and obedient in a way Liam’s life had suddenly stopped being.

"He didn’t force you," Mara said.

Liam gave her a flat look.

"I know he didn’t," she added quickly. "I just mean... you trusted him."

The silence after that was worse than the screaming.

Liam looked away first.

"He let me leave," he said.

Mara blinked.

"He didn’t want to. I could feel that. But he let me come here anyway." His mouth twisted. "No commands. No cage. Just a security officer and the most infuriating amount of restraint I’ve ever seen in an alpha."

Mara stared at him for one long second.

Then she sighed. "Oh, Liam."

"Do not."

"You’re doomed."

"I am not doomed."

"You are bonded to a prince who respects your work and lets you run toward illegal turbines during emotional collapse. You are doomed."

From beyond the doors, Alexander called, "Should I bring the wrench?"

Liam closed his eyes. "Large."

Stanford’s calm voice followed. "Industrial or symbolic?"

"Both," Liam said.

Mara leaned beside him against the rail.

"You know most people would panic about the imperial family."

"I am panicking about my mother first, she is closer than Agaron."

Mara winced.

"And Aunt Mirelle."

She went still.

Then nodded once. "I’ll get the condemned pressure casing too."