Page 21 of Legacy Elite

"What?"

"WHAT."

And it takes me an embarrassingly long half second.

Oh.

Oh, no.

They knew Luke was training me. They knew there was something happening that I wouldn't put a word to. Sophia spent an entire spring being delighted about me disappearing every afternoon.

They do not know this.

"So," I say. "Okay. There's a thing."

"THERE'S A THING."

"Sophia."

"When." She is off the couch. "When did this happen. Give me a date, Jessica."

"...The night before the Trial."

She stops.

"The night before the Trial," Sophia repeats.

"Yes."

"April."

"That's usually when the Trial is."

"I have talked to you every day since June." She is advancing on me. "I told you about the café. I told you about the café for four months. I described the water pressure."

"You did."

"And you sat there. On the phone. Withholding this. Is it serious?"

Freya's head comes up.

She looks at Luke. Then she looks past me, at the doorway, where Torres has not moved and is not pretending to be surprised by any of this.

"Both of them," Freya says.

It's not a question.

Nobody says anything.

Renzo puts the kettle down.

"Both of them," Sophia says. Flat. Then, an octave up, "BOTH OF THEM?"

"We are . . . together."

"Did all of this happen at the same time?"

"Yes."