Belle's eyes narrowed. "You're still smirking. Why are you still smirking?"
"You'll see."
"That's worse. That's so much worse than the smirk."
I held out both hands. Palms up. One for each of them.
Belle took the left without hesitation, her fingers wrapping around mine with the grip strength of someone who'd been firing a crossbow daily for three weeks. Naomi took the right a beat later, her touch softer, her thumb finding the inside of my wrist and pressing against my pulse in a gesture so familiar now that I barely registered it consciously.
I activated Private Sanctum.
Fifty mana drained from my reserves as reality folded around us like a page being turned. The apartment walls went transparent, then dissolved. The ceiling peeled back to reveal something that was definitely not the fifth floor of Building C.
We materialized on grass.
