Page 20 of The Teras Trials

“They’ve grown up surviving attack after attack,” I try one last time before Leo walks into earshot.

“But a manticore?” Bellamy exclaims, oblivious.

“It killed my brother,” I hiss. “Decimated a graduate party. And they managed to wound it.”

I leave the rest unsaid: I owe them. I am grateful. You dumb bastards, they made it bleed, can’t you see how fucking valuable—

There it is again: that anger. Leo twitches at the sound in the corner of my eye. Too late for speaking now—Leo and his entourage come to a stop. “This is Silas and Winifred.”

“Fred,” the girl says sharply. “Silas, sit down.”

Silas is clearly in pain, but trying to suppress it. Like a cat amongst larger predators. He doesn’t want to risk appearing weak.

Leo and Fred sit down either side of me. I am unashamed when Leo sits beside me again, and I put a too-friendly hand on his back.

“Did you bring a trophy?” Bellamy asks immediately.

Fred can’t keep the scorn from her face. Her brother mirrors it, a contained snarl of disdain that curls his top lip. He is quiet, which is smart and dangerous all at once. Fred seems to have a personality large enough for the both of them.

“No,” Fred says flatly. “Chasing the thing down after it had torn a graduate Hunter party apart didn’t seem like a priority.”

“Oh, well, of course not,” Bellamy purrs. “Your poor injured brother took the cake there, I bet.”

I kick him under the table and shut him up. The damage is done, though. Silas clenches his jaw, his expression darkening. I can’t quite parse it. Shame, maybe? Something close to self-disgust? I don’t quite understand. Is that a xenos thing? Some weakness in being injured that is worth shaming someone over?

In any case, I’m worried. There’s no way Silas Lin is ever going to trust us.

You don’t need his trust. I swear I hear it in Thaddeus’s voice, but that part of my mind is right. Trust comes in buckets if you say the right thing. What I’ll need is effort. Work.

“Room with us,” I say suddenly. I cut over the silence and they all turn to me. Bellamy is angry, or disappointed. Victoria has a lick of something similar behind her eyes. But the others just wait.

“Don’t,” Victoria says softly.

It is a warning I immediately ignore. “This isn’t altruism,” I clarify.

“If it’s not altruistic, it’s strategic,” Fred says. She’s quick. She purses her lips, eyes scathing in their evaluation of me. “So what exactly is the strategy?”

“Survive the trial. Get admitted. Graduate. Three steps to it, but we’re stuck on the first.”

No one speaks. Bellamy’s expression shifts from disappointment to outright anger. I fancy I can hear the growl of a cornered animal in the back of Bellamy’s throat.

“Why do you need us?” Fred looks ready to bolt. I see her lay a warning hand on Silas’ arm—they’re getting ready to leave. They want secrets I don’t have, but they won’t trust me for any of them.

“I don’t,” I lie. “But Leo seems to like you. And surely you can see everyone here is making allies.”

I give her a moment to assess that and she removes the hand from her brother. “What do you know that we don’t?”

Now that she’s asking outright, I feel like I have her.

“Nothing but rumours,” I say before Bellamy can stop me. “Whatever it is, it isn’t good.”

Leo has both his arms crossed, and a dark look in his face. It makes me want to pay attention.

I lean over to him. “I’m not asking for anything. Nothing but a room. Maybe a day or so from now you’ll decide us Londoners are worth talking to, or maybe you’ll never feel the need. I won’t push it.” When he doesn’t say anything, I whisper, “Unless you want me to.”

Leo’s eyes flicker towards me, staring at me from under his eyelashes. We seem to understand each other, then. He unfurls his limbs. “I’m in.”

I can barely contain the swell of a smile. Fred and Silas stand in silence together. Silas tilts his head to the side and Fred seems to translate for him by saying, “Thinking on it.”

---