Page 66 of Legacy Ascended

"Thank you—"

"There was a race and I won it."

"You did not—"

"Soren cut you off," Ander says, coming around the wall, "and you took four extra steps and never recovered."

Torres sits up. "Soren, you cheated—"

"I found a gap and took it," Soren says.

"That's cheating!"

My jacket sleeve is caught behind me and I can't get my arm through it, so I hold it out.

"Jon."

He comes and gets it on, and his fingers brush the inside of my wrist.

"You'll be stiff tomorrow," he says.

"I know."

"Mm." He puts my cuff straight and doesn't move away immediately.

Ander stands on my other side, close, with his shoulder against mine.

“You look happy,” he says.

I look back across the snow.

“I am.”

“Good.”

“If Bergström clears me, we're doing it again tomorrow.”

Chapter twelve

Torres

Voss makes me do the entry twelve times before he's satisfied, and on the eleventh he stops the whole floor to tell everybody what I'm doing wrong.

"Again. Torres — you're arriving with your weight already committed. Where's your back foot?"

"Behind me."

"Where specifically."

I look down. It's about four inches further back than it should be, which means the second I close I've got nothing left to push off if the other guy moves.

"Yeah," I say. "Okay."

"Don't yeah okay me, fix it."

I fix it. Take twelve does what it's supposed to do, and Declan — who has spent the last forty minutes patiently letting me get it wrong on him — gives me a look that says finally, and I tell him to shut up, and he hasn't said anything.

"Better," Voss says. "Reset. Both of you."