The segue leaves Alina with the worst impression: that Zoya has openly determined that, absent a place among Genya and Alina, she will instead seek housing with Aleksander. Outrage surges in her chest, heats her cheeks, but it's muddled. She can't tell if it's jealousy or shame or a desperate clawing sense to protect even Zoya from him.

And that terrifies her.

"In the boarding house," she snaps out quickly, temper flaring. "With the rest of us, in a bed too small to have space for you."

But that's not entirely true, is it? As much as Alina wants to believe that only a protective instinct lies at the core of her comment, the fact that she thinks instantly of how wrong her statement is—Wanda is, after all, sharing that room with him, it's not as if he were too good for tucking in close—proves it's not so simple.

She deflects. Or, more accurately, projects it right onto Zoya instead. "You're unbelievable."