That night, the dorm room felt different. Too quiet. Every creak of the floorboard, every groan of the old pipes overhead prickled my nerves. Kael sat at his desk, pretending to study, but I could feel his attention flicking back to me every few minutes.
I lay back on the bed, arms behind my head, staring at the ceiling. The overhead light buzzed faintly. Outside, distant laughter filtered through the windows from somewhere down the hall. Life went on. Normal. Unchanged.
But I wasn’t breathing normally.
"What if someone pulls my file? Really looks?" I asked, barely above a whisper.
Kael’s chair scraped back. He crossed the room and sat beside me, one leg tucked under. "Then we plan for that. We find out who has access, what they’d be looking for. We keep you one step ahead."
I turned
