Soren woke up to voices in the hallway and Maren’s tail draped across his chest.

She was sleeping in the chair beside his bed with her body curled sideways and her fox ears twitching in whatever dream she was having.

Her tail had found him during the night and the warmth from it had kept his body temperature stable because his internal thermostat had decided to stop working.

Selah was on the other side of the bed.

Sitting with her back against the wall, her knees pulled up and a thin layer of frost on her knuckles meant she’d been running temperature regulation on him all night.

Her eyes were open and they tracked him the moment he moved.

"The Board updated," Selah said.

"What?"

"The Tamer Ranking Board. It was updated overnight." She paused. "You should get up."

Soren’s body disagreed for about three seconds and then he managed to swing his legs off the bed.

Maren’s tail tightened when he moved, pulling him back by an inch, and her eyes opened halfway.

"Where are you going?"

"Apparently the Ranking Board happened."

"Five more minutes."

"Maren."

Her ears flicked and her tail unwound from his torso. The loss of heat was immediate and he missed it more than he wanted to admit.

They walked to the main hall and the crowd was already there.

◆◆◆◆

The Tamer Ranking Board was a massive crystalline display mounted on the north wall of the academy.

It is updated once per semester under normal conditions and once per month during active assessment periods.

It had never updated overnight.

Soren’s name was at #14.

He stared at it. Yesterday he’d been #341.

#14.

The jump was so large that the Board had flagged it with a gold asterisk next to his name.

He’d seen gold asterisks in the novel before but never in these Chapters.

Gold meant "Council-claimed asset."

"Three hundred and twenty-seven spots," Troy said behind him. "Biggest single-assessment jump in academy."

"I didn’t ask for it."

"The academy registered a Tier-6 Mythic bonded entity and recalculated the entire Board."

"I dropped from three to four, the Board restructured the weight distribution to account for your classification."

Lior Vasquez was standing twenty feet away with his Crowned Lion sitting at his feet like a house cat.

He was looking at Soren’s name on the Board and his face showed nothing and that was worse than if it had showed something.

◆◆◆◆

Hansel Jay found him in the cafeteria.

Hansel was shaking and Soren could see it from across the room, the way his Stoneback Beetle was pressed against his ankle the way Grimm pressed against Soren’s leg when things got bad.

"A sponsor pulled me last night," Hansel said.

Soren went still. "What?"

"A sponsor from the Western Fund. They reviewed the Class Z roster because..." He stopped and swallowed.

"Because a Class Z student hit #14 and someone finally looked at the rest of us."

The cafeteria was full and people were listening and Hansel either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

"I can pay tuition, Kane." His voice cracked on the last word. "I can stay."

Soren didn’t know what to say so he said "Good" and that was apparently enough because Hansel nodded once then walked to the Class Z table and sat down.

Maren slid into the seat beside Soren and her shoulder pressed against his and her tail brushed his leg under the table.

"You just saved his whole life and all you said was ’good,’" she said.

"What was I supposed to say?"

"Something with more than four letters."

"Fine. Good for him."

Maren snorted and she stole a piece of bread from his tray with her fingers and ate it while looking at him with gold eyes that dared him to say something.

Selah sat on his other side and set down a cup of tea in front of him. The cup had frost on the handle where she’d been holding it.

"The Class Z table is looking at you," Selah said quietly. "All of them."

Soren glanced and she was right.

Ten students at the Class Z table were watching him and the expressions varied but the core was the same.

He wasn’t their joke anymore.

"I didn’t mean to build a faction," Soren said.

"You built one anyway," Selah said and the frost on the cup handle climbed another inch and her pinky touched his wrist under the table.

◆◆◆◆

Vesna caught him after breakfast.

She was standing in the corridor outside the east wing with her clipboard and her instructor’s seal.

She waited until the hallway cleared and then she said: "I know what you are."

Soren’s whole body went tight.

"I knew the moment you walked in," Vesna said. "The Board just told everyone else."

"What exactly do you think you know?"

"I think the Board is correct but I think you have six days."

"Six days until what?"

She looked at him for a long three seconds and then she walked away.

Vesna knew something about the Fracture timeline that the rest of the academy didn’t, and she’d just told him a number that he hadn’t shared with anyone except Troy and Selah.

Yara? he thought through the bond.

"I heard her." Yara’s voice came back low and careful. "She’s not wrong about the timeline and master?"

"Yeah."

"She smelled like old paper and binding ink. The kind they use for sealing documents." A pause. "Bureau documents."

Great. Another player on the board he didn’t have time for.

◆◆◆◆

Dani Sloan came to his door that night.

She was standing in the hallway with her moth on her collar and her clipboard under her arm.

"After Fen’s interview," she said.

"After the tremors. After watching Joan build a case against you while something underneath this school is waking up."

She paused and her moth’s wings opened and closed once.

"I’m not partnering with you," she said. "I want that clear."

"Okay."

"But whatever is coming in six days, I’m on your side." She held his eyes.

"Because you’re the only person in this building who seems to know what’s actually happening and isn’t pretending otherwise."

Soren looked at her and he saw the file keeper, the quiet observer, the girl who had watched everyone else make their move and had waited until she was sure before she made hers.

"Thank you, Dani."

She nodded and left and the moth on her collar glowed faintly in the dark hallway.

Maren was leaning in his doorframe with her arms crossed. "Another one."

"She just said she’s NOT partnering with me."

"She said it while standing at your door at eleven at night with her heart rate up."

Maren’s tail swished once. "The fox knows what the fox sees."

"You’re projecting."

"I’m observing." She pushed off the doorframe and walked past him into the room, her shoulder brushing his chest.

"Selah already took the left side of the bed. I’m taking the right. You get the middle."

"I get the..."

"The middle. It’s the warmest spot and your soul is still broken and you’re not sleeping alone tonight."

She looked over her shoulder. "Fight me on this and I’ll set the blankets on fire."

He didn’t fight her on it.

From the shadow on the wall, Yara’s red eyes watched the room settle.

She said nothing but the shadow under Soren’s bed stretched wider than it needed to and wrapped around the base of the frame and stayed there.

The temperature in the room held perfectly all night because the fox’s warmth and the shadow’s presence had found a balance that neither of them would ever admit to coordinating.

[DING! — Obsession Index: Yara 39/75. Selah 29/50. Maren 12/50.]

[DING! — Soul integrity: 50.1%. Stable.]