Page 115 of Legacy Elite

"Luke."

He puts his head down on the pillow beside me, laughing, and lets it go.

We lie there for a while. The heating clicks.

"Everybody looked at me differently today," I say.

Torres, without opening his eyes: "I didn't."

"Neither did I," Luke says.

"You absolutely did. When I came in tonight. You looked at me like—"

"Yes," Luke says. "That had nothing whatsoever to do with royalty."

"Oh."

"Mm."

"...Right."

My phone buzzes on the floor where somebody kicked it.

I ignore it.

It buzzes again.

Then again, twice, and Luke turns his head toward the sound.

"If that's one more person wanting to discuss my constitutional significance," I say, "I'm throwing it out the window."

Torres, eyes still shut: "Open the window first."

I reach down and get it.

It's not the Council. It's not the legal office. It's a plain academy calendar update, pushed automatically, for tomorrow.

Six entries where there used to be two.

Escort at 07:40. Leadership rotation moved. Legal office at eleven. Security review at one. Communications briefing at three. And a final line that just says TBC — Chancellor's office, which is somehow the most frightening thing on the list.

On Monday there were two things on this. Both mine. I put them there.

I scroll down and there's nothing left of tomorrow that anybody asked me about.

I hold the phone up so Luke can see it.

He looks at it for a moment.

"Welcome to royalty," he says.

I hit him with a pillow.

Chapter fifteen

Jessica

The gate is four feet wide and I am not.