diff --git a/tools/check-cited.mjs b/tools/check-cited.mjs
index bfe42e1..90cd117 100644
--- a/tools/check-cited.mjs
+++ b/tools/check-cited.mjs
@@ -70,8 +70,13 @@ function resolve(json, dotted) {
 }
 
 /* The number immediately before the marker, allowing for markup and a trailing unit:
-   "**40**", "25.5%", "1.4x". Anchored to the end so it is the nearest one. */
-const CITE = /([\d]+(?:\.[\d]+)?)\s*(?:%|x)?\**\s*(?:—|-|–)?\s*<!--\s*cite:\s*([\w-]+)\s+([\w.]+)\s*-->/g;
+   "**40**", "25.5%", "1.4x". Anchored to the end so it is the nearest one.
+   [ \t] rather than \s throughout, so a citation cannot span a newline. The failure text
+   below has always promised the comment must follow its figure "immediately, with nothing
+   but markup between"; \s* quietly allowed a marker on the following line, so the code was
+   looser than its own documentation. Making them agree also keeps the offender report
+   honest — see the count check. */
+const CITE = /([\d]+(?:\.[\d]+)?)[ \t]*(?:%|x)?\**[ \t]*(?:—|-|–)?[ \t]*<!--[ \t]*cite:[ \t]*([\w-]+)[ \t]+([\w.]+)[ \t]*-->/g;
 /* Every marker, however badly placed. The two counts must agree — see below. */
 const ANY_CITE = /<!--\s*cite:[^>]*-->/g;
 
@@ -89,18 +94,24 @@ for (const [rel, abs] of scenarioFiles()) {
      number; put one word between them and the citation is silently skipped while the run
      still reports OK with the same count as a clean tree. Found by a peer session writing
      a bad citation by accident. So every occurrence is counted and the totals must agree. */
-  const seen = (text.match(ANY_CITE) ?? []).length;
-  const read = [...text.matchAll(CITE)].length;
-  if (seen !== read) {
-    const unread = text.split("\n")
-      .map((l, i) => [i + 1, l])
-      .filter(([, l]) => ANY_CITE.test(l) && (ANY_CITE.lastIndex = 0) === 0
-                      && [...l.matchAll(CITE)].length < (l.match(ANY_CITE) ?? []).length);
-    problems.push(`  ${rel}: ${seen - read} citation marker(s) not attached to a number, so `
+  const markers = [...text.matchAll(ANY_CITE)];
+  const spans = [...text.matchAll(CITE)].map(m => [m.index, m.index + m[0].length]);
+  /* Located by position, not per line: a valid citation is a marker some CITE match covers.
+     The first version of this filtered line by line, which named any VALID citation that
+     happened to share a line with nothing — reporting a working marker as broken whenever
+     another one was genuinely unread. The count was right and the explanation was wrong,
+     which is the defect this guard exists to prevent, two levels down. */
+  const unread = markers.filter(m => !spans.some(([a, b]) => m.index >= a && m.index < b));
+  if (unread.length) {
+    const lineOf = i => text.slice(0, i).split("\n").length;
+    problems.push(`  ${rel}: ${unread.length} citation marker(s) not attached to a number, so `
       + `nothing checks them — a marker that looks like a citation and is never read is the `
       + `defect this guard exists for. The comment must follow its figure immediately `
       + `(\`**40**<!-- cite: ... -->\`), with nothing but markup between.`);
-    unread.forEach(([n, l]) => problems.push(`      line ${n}: ${l.trim().slice(0, 110)}`));
+    unread.forEach(m => {
+      const n = lineOf(m.index);
+      problems.push(`      line ${n}: ${text.split("\n")[n - 1].trim().slice(0, 110)}`);
+    });
   }
 
   for (const m of text.matchAll(CITE)) {