The quad was mostly empty when I arrived. Mid-afternoon meant most students were in classes or training sessions, leaving the grass and benches populated by scattered upperclassmen studying outdoors and a few couples making out behind the larger trees. I found an unoccupied bench near the fountain and collapsed onto it with the boneless exhaustion of someone who had just survived something they probably shouldn't have.
Belle appeared three minutes later, moving through the sparse crowd with the kind of aggressive walking that suggested she'd been running scenarios in her head the entire trip over. She sat down beside me without asking for permission or space, close enough that our shoulders touched.
"Talk."
I talked. Everything Cassandra had said, everything I'd said in response, the quiet threats and quieter observations. Belle listened without interrupting, her expression growing more closed with each new piece of information.
