Page 23 of Legacy Elite

Because they know what the Trial was. And they can do the arithmetic on what came after, which is a plane, and an ocean, and a phone.

"Jess," Sophia says, in a completely different voice.

"It's fine."

"It's not fine. It's the worst thing I have ever heard."

Luke's hand settles on the back of my neck. Torres has come away from the doorway and is close enough that his shoulder is against mine, and I lean into it without deciding to.

"It was a long summer," Luke says.

"We're not talking about the summer," I say.

"No," he agrees. "We're not."

Sophia opens her mouth.

"Sophia," Freya says, "don't."

Sophia closes it. She looks genuinely wounded by the effort.

"This is the most secure student housing on campus," says another voice from the doorway.

Soren fills a doorway. He doesn't come in. He stands there with his hands in his pockets and takes in the entire scene: Sophia on her feet mid-outrage, Declan grinning at nothing, Renzo and the kettle, Freya in the window, Luke's hand on the back of my neck.

Then Torres's bags, through the open door of the second bedroom.

Then me.

I watch him put it together. He's fast. He always was. Whatever he does with it doesn't reach his face.

"You've been here twelve minutes," he says.

I look around at all of it. The coat over the ugly chair. Declan on the floor. Sophia's shoes under my desk.

"We're efficient."

And Evren Soren, who spent an entire year looking at me like I was a scheduling error, smiles.

It's small. It's about a quarter of a second. But it happens and I'm so surprised I just stand there. Damn, I forgot how potent his smile is.

Sophia's head snaps toward him. "Did he just—"

"No," I say.

"He absolutely—"

"Sophia."

Soren's face has gone back to its usual settings, but he's still in the doorway.

"The catch on your second window is loose," he says. "It's been loose for years. Report it or it'll rattle all winter and you'll go mad."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Because this was my room. First two years. They moved me across the corridor when my pack wanted me in the corner suite."

I have no idea what to do with that, so I say, "Was the chair here?"