"I'm fine," he says.
"You grunted," Leo says.
"I didn't grunt," Gray says.
"You absolutely—"
"Walk," Gray says.
Leo offers me his arm again, still grinning, and we walk. Behind us at the door Alexandra watches us go.
"You look like a princess," she calls after me.
"You already told me I look beautiful," I call back.
"I know," she says. "But now you look like a princess."
Frosthaven at night for a formal is a different building than the one I've been walking through for weeks. Lights strung along the paths, the main hall doors decorated, music coming from inside warm and real. I clock Becky near the entrance in a green dress and move on without stopping.
The hall is transformed — tables pushed back, floor cleared, lights low and warm. The whole campus gathered and dressed up. Gray takes my hand and leads me to the floor and I feel his hand tighten slightly in mine before we start.
"Gray," I say.
"I know how to dance," he says.
"I wasn’t worried," I say.
"I'm just—"
"Gray," Leo says, appearing beside us. "Move your feet."
Gray moves his feet. We dance — properly, his hand at my waist and mine at his shoulder. He's good. Of course he is. He settles into it after thirty seconds and then he's just Gray, looking at me the way he looks at me when he thinks I'm not paying attention.
I'm always paying attention.
Leo lasts one song before he abandons any pretense of formal dancing. The students around him give space. He takes it as an invitation.
"Leo," I say.
"I'm expressing myself," he says.
"You're clearing the floor," Gray says.
"People are watching," I say.
"Yes," Leo says, with great satisfaction.
I start laughing. Leo in a tuxedo with a crooked bow tie in the middle of a formal dance floor while Gray watches with the expression of a man who has accepted his life. The laugh comes up from somewhere real and warm and I let it. Gray's hand tightens at my waist. He's smiling.
Lumi arrives a few minutes later — dress the color of deep water, James behind her in a suit and a cowboy hat that he is wearing with complete sincerity and pulling off entirely. He scans the room once and then his eyes find me and he grins wide and real.
Lumi stops beside us.
"Alex," she says. "This is James."
He puts his hand out and I take it and his grip is warm and certain.
"You're the one who followed her up Denali," I say.
