Page 163 of Legacy Elite

At some point I found a basket of clean laundry beside Luke’s bedroom door, and now I’m sitting on the floor folding his T-shirts because apparently this is what my life has become.

“You own too much black,” I tell him.

Luke doesn’t look up. He’s on the couch with his boot off, working his ankle in circles because he rolled it sparring on Tuesday and won’t go to the infirmary about it.

Declan’s at the table with a book he hasn’t turned a page of in twenty minutes.

Soren’s at the window.

He’s been there since Jessica’s cars left at seven.

It’s eight thirty on a Thursday and the whole block is suspended, so there’s nothing for any of us to do until somebody thinks of something.

Then her fear comes down the line and my chest locks up.

Pain hits a second later, left side, high, and my arm goes hot.

I look down. My arm is fine. Luke’s shirt is still in my hand.

“Jessica?” Luke’s on his feet.

“Yeah.”

Soren’s already moving. He grabs his jacket from the back of the chair and heads for the door.

Declan’s up. “What?”

“She’s in trouble. Right now.”

Soren pulls his jacket on. “Where?”

I reach for her. Her fear fills the whole thing.

“East. A long way.”

Luke’s shoving his foot into the boot on the bad ankle. “The archive road. They left before seven.”

Soren gets the door open. “How far out?”

“Ninety minutes. More, the way they routed it.”

Renzo’s coming up the corridor eating when he sees us.

“What happened?”

“Jessica,” Declan says.

That’s all it takes.

Renzo drops the food and comes with us.

We hit the front steps moving fast.

The motor pool is a shed with a padlock and a sign-out sheet and a man named Petrus who doesn't come in until nine. Declan sprints for security. Sophia's halfway across the courtyard from the other direction because Renzo called her. Luke's got his phone at his ear and is getting nothing back.

I stand on the gravel and she's still fighting. I can feel her fighting. Every second I'm on this step is a second of that.

Ander comes around the corner of the hall at a flat run. He's been out there since eight — he's been out there most mornings since the yard, and nobody has ever asked him about it and nobody's going to now.