They didn't plan to meet. Ashe descended from the upper path, Valerica merged from the east walkway, and Isole climbed the lower residential steps with the massive Silver Wood archive tucked securely under her arm. The hill at ten minutes to nine simply pulled them together.
Isole fell into step on Vane's left. Without hesitation, she reached over and laced her arm through his. She didn't make a grand gesture of it. She just took his arm, kept her eyes forward, and continued walking.
It was the first time she had done it like that. In broad daylight. On the way to class, as if it were the most natural place for her hand to be.
Vane glanced at her. She didn't look back, but the corner of her mouth twitched upward.
He enjoyed the quiet moment for exactly two seconds before Ashe and Valerica both moved for his right arm.
Ashe was faster. She always was. Her hand closed firmly around his forearm with the efficient certainty of someone executing a battlefield decision.
