Yara came back before dawn and said nothing about the hall, and Soren didn't make her.
So the morning ran normally on top of a thing nobody at the table had put down.
Then Cassidy Holt walked into the cafeteria already pricing it, and she didn't come to his table.
She went to Maren's.
Soren clocked it from across the room.
The last time Holt tried the pack she'd come at him, found no seam, and left telling him the edges held.
She'd learned something in the walking-off. This time she skipped the tamer and went for the beast.
Maren was at the end table with one leg over the chair arm, heat coming off her, not trying to hide it.
Cassidy sat down across from her without being asked.
"You're the fire fox," Cassidy said.
"I'm Maren."
"You're both." Holt set a slate on the table, screen down, an offer she wasn't showing yet. "I did the reading before I came over. Fused whole in a Fracture event, running hot on a Class Z budget that can't feed what you are."
