Stella had leaned her head on my shoulder for exactly one second at the café door, and then remembered she was fifteen and in public. I let it go. The Grey folded around us without fuss, and an instant later we stood in the quiet, sunlit living room of the penthouse. The street, the stares, the boy who'd knocked his chair over—all of it gone, as if it had never happened.
"You're embarrassed," I said, letting go of her. "Because of that Kaelen kid?"
"It's not like that," she sighed, pulling away, still a little pink, and walking to the big window. Her spot. She looked out at the Avalon skyline, white towers and blue sky. "He's just… he's ranked first of Slatemark's first-years. Silver rank. Everyone else in the group is Yellow. They're all so… driven. I just want to make sure I can keep up, you know?"
