We moved between them more carefully now, with the door close.
I stepped around a child's shoe and did not look at where the other one might be.
I knocked.
Nothing came back from inside. No scrape of a chair. No breath against the wood that I could separate from our own.
"Azure."
"Bram."
Her voice arrived right against the grain, which meant she'd been standing at it for a while.
The door opened and I slid through. Code came after me. Azure had the latch turned again before either of us had fully faced the room; the click was small.
Sophia was asleep on the desk with her head on her folded arms. Dark hair spilled across the blotter. One cheek pressed to the wood. The rise and fall of her shoulders was slow. After last night she'd earned every minute of it.
Melissa was asleep too, tipped back against the chair with her mouth slightly open. The black dress had ridden up at one knee. A strand of white hair stuck to her lip.
Ingrid was awake.
