For a long moment after the announcement, I couldn’t feel my feet. The hall was still there. The students were still there. Krystal was still standing beside me. But everything else felt slightly tilted, like the ground had shifted under the stone floor and only I had noticed.
Fannar was our group leader.
The same man who had looked at me like I had personally committed a crime simply by existing, or breathing in the same air as him. I forced myself to breathe slowly through my nose. Maybe I had imagined the hatred.
Maybe it was just… intensity.
Yes.
That sounded reasonable.
Krystal leaned toward me.
“You look like someone just told you the world is ending.”
“Not ending,” I murmured.
“Just becoming… significantly more complicated.”
She followed my gaze toward Fannar.
“Ah.”
Krys
