“Such a dork,” Candy said, before switching to French to better articulate that lameness. Candy was a smaller version of her older sister. She had a similar teasing demeanor, from what I could tell, but without the flirting aspect.

Chastity retorted with something else, so rapid-fire that I couldn’t even tell where the words started or stopped.

The Kenzie-aged Candy’s response was sharp, and sounded weirdly religious—I wasn’t sure if my mind was seeing faces in clouds, putting meanings to foreign words that weren’t there.

There was enough violence in the words and enough of a glittering look in the young girl’s eye that I felt the need to say something. “Do we need to step in?”

“Don’t even try,” Parian muttered under her breath.

“No,” Chastity said. “Not unless you want to wash my sister’s mouth out with soap.”

“Please do,” Aroa said, from the sidelines. She was similar in appearance to the others, but her hair was straight, and there was no smile on her face—no particular frowning or coldness either. Her eyes were animated, her glances always sidelong, never direct. “It would be funny.”

“You can help,” Candy said. “My dork of a sister needs to get laid.”

“Can’t help you there,” I said, trying not to sound as uncomfortable as I felt.

“Your teammate can. Precipice!” Candy raised her voice.

“Uh.”

“Please. She gets more annoying and immature every minute she doesn’t have anyone, and I’m the one who has to deal with it.”

“Uh,” Precipice said, again. He looked at Chastity. “Sorry.”

“No need to say sorry,” Chastity said, touching his arm. “My sister put you on the spot. But if you did want to say yes, you could count on my discretion and a complete lack of any strings.”

“Just don’t fall in love with her,” Candy said.

“Yeah, don’t fall in love with me,” Chastity said.

“It’s… weird, getting this offer,” Precipice said. “Knowing who you guys are.”

Heartbroken. Heartbreaker’s.

“I would have thought you were sympathetic, coming from a bad place,” Candy said.

I looked down at Candy. “Tattletale told you?”

“Uh huh.”

“That’s not great,” I said.

“We don’t mingle with society or have a lot of civilian friends,” Aroa said. “We aren’t going to leak your secrets because we stick to our own.”

“You haven’t even seen my face,” Precipice was telling Chastity.

“Back out, Precipice,” Parian said. “Drop the topic, walk away.”

“If she has advice, it’s good to take it,” I advised him, giving him an elbow to the arm. I bumped the metal under his sleeve.

Precipice nodded.

“I get a sense of people around me,” Chastity told him. “It’s clear enough for me to know proportions, and I like your proportions.”

I sighed, loud enough to be sure he heard it. My breath fogged in front of my face.