THE COLD PROFESSOR
1244 Words
The creature reached Elara before anyone else could breathe.
A mass of black smoke burst through the shattered doorway, its glowing white eyes fixed directly on her.
Students screamed and stumbled over each other trying to escape, tables overturned, and candles crashed onto the marble floor.
Elara’s pulse exploded with panic.
Not again.
Professor Kael Durnan stepped in front of her instantly.
“Get down,” he ordered coldly.
The creature lunged.
Kael lifted one hand lazily, as if the monster bored him. Invisible force slammed through the hall.
The creature froze midair, twisting violently before its neck snapped with a sickening c***k.
Its body dissolved into ash.
Silence followed, real silence, the kind born from fear.
Elara stared at Kael, shaken despite herself. He hadn’t even flinched. His dark robes barely moved around him while chaos swallowed the room.
One of the most powerful mages alive.
The rumors hadn’t exaggerated.
“Everyone out,” Kael said calmly.
Nobody argued.
Students rushed toward the exits immediately, whispering in terror.
“She summoned it.”
“That mark!”
“She has forbidden blood.”
Elara clenched her fists tightly. Their fear wrapped around her throat like chains. She had spent years hiding for exactly this reason.
A hand grabbed her wrist suddenly.
“Move before they start a public execution,” Caspian Vale muttered beside her.
Even now, his voice carried lazy amusement, though tension sharpened his silver eyes. His expensive academy uniform looked untouched despite the surrounding destruction.
Elara pulled free immediately. “I don’t need help.”
“Cute response. Still helping.”
Kael’s gaze snapped toward them.
“Mr. Vale,” he said sharply. “Leave.”
Caspian sighed dramatically. “You professors really kill every enjoyable moment.”
“Now.”
The temperature in the room dropped dangerously.
Even Caspian recognized the threat beneath Kael’s calm voice. His flirtatious expression faded slightly as he looked toward Elara.
“We’ll continue this later,” he said quietly.
Then he disappeared with the others.
The second the doors shut, Kael turned fully toward her.
His face became unreadable again, cold, controlled, and intimidating.
Exactly what the professor's students feared.
Elara straightened stubbornly despite the fear crawling beneath her skin.
“What are you?” Kael asked.
The bluntness stunned her.
She folded her arms tightly. “That’s a rude way to introduce yourself.”
His eyes narrowed slightly.
Wrong answer.
Kael approached slowly, black boots echoing against the ruined hall. Power radiated from him in suffocating waves, but his expression never changed.
“That mark should not exist,” he said quietly.
Elara’s hidden wrist burned beneath her sleeve. “I didn’t ask for it.”
“Who gave it to you?”
“No one.”
“Lies.”
Something sharp snapped inside her.
“Maybe stop interrogating me like a criminal,” she shot back. “You’re the one terrifying everyone.”
Kael stopped directly in front of her.
Up close, he looked even more dangerous with his dark hair falling carelessly across his forehead, sharp jawline, pale skin, and eyes like frozen steel.
Beautiful in the worst possible way.
“I terrify people because they survive when they fear me,” he replied calmly.
The answer unsettled her more than shouting would have.
Before Elara could respond, the giant doors opened again.
A woman entered wearing crimson council robes trimmed with silver.
Seraphine Morvane.
Elegant, cruel, and beautiful in a poisonous way.
Elara immediately disliked her.
Seraphine’s sharp eyes landed on Elara’s sleeve. “So the rumors were true.”
Kael’s expression hardened instantly. “This matter is contained.”
“Clearly not.” Seraphine stepped closer gracefully. “A void creature broke through the academy's protection spells.”
Her gaze swept over Elara slowly, like examining prey.
“And all because of a scholarship student.”
Elara forced herself not to react.
Fear invites weakness.
Her mother taught her that before she died.
“She remains under investigation,” Kael said coldly.
Seraphine smiled faintly. “Protective already?”
Kael ignored the comment completely.
Interesting.
Seraphine circled Elara slowly. “Tell me, girl. Do you know what lives beneath this academy?”
“No.”
“Good. Ignorance is safer.”
Kael’s jaw tightened slightly.
Elara noticed immediately.
There were secrets here. Dangerous ones.
Seraphine finally stopped moving. “The council arrives tomorrow. If they discover forbidden magic inside these walls, they will demand blood.”
The threat hung heavily in the air.
Elara swallowed hard but refused to look afraid.
“Then expel me,” she said quietly.
Kael looked at her sharply.
Seraphine laughed softly. “You still think leaving is possible?”
Before Elara could ask what that meant, another voice interrupted.
“Wonderful. I missed one opening ceremony, and suddenly everyone’s discussing executions.”
A woman with wild dark curls entered, carrying several books against her chest.
Professor Isolde Grimm.
Unlike the tense atmosphere surrounding everyone else, Isolde looked delighted by the chaos.
Her golden eyes landed on Elara instantly.
Then widened slightly.
“Well,” she murmured. “That’s unfortunate.”
Kael shot her a warning look.
Isolde ignored him completely.
“She has her mother’s eyes,” she said.
Elara froze.
The room suddenly felt colder.
“You knew my mother?” she whispered.
Nobody answered immediately.
Kael’s silence became answer enough.
Anger flared hot inside her chest. “Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?” Kael asked.
“Talking around me like I’m too fragile to handle the truth.”
“You are not ready for the truth.”
“You don’t know me.”
Kael stepped closer suddenly. “I know enough.”
The intensity in his voice stole her breath for one dangerous second.
Emotion flashed behind his cold expression.
Fear, not fear of her, but fear for her.
Then it vanished.
Seraphine noticed it too.
Interesting, very interesting.
“Careful, Professor,” she said smoothly. “Emotional attachments create weakness.”
Kael didn’t even look at her. “Leave.”
The single word carried enough power to silence the room.
Seraphine’s smile faded slightly, but she turned gracefully toward the doors anyway.
“This academy buried dangerous things long ago,” she said softly before leaving. “Let us hope the dead stay buried.”
Isolde followed behind her, though not before giving Elara one long, pitying look.
The doors shut.
Silence returned.
Elara stared directly at Kael. “Tell me what’s happening.”
“No.”
Her temper snapped instantly. “You don’t get to control me.”
Kael moved before she realized it.
One second, he stood across from her, and the next, he had her pinned gently but firmly against the nearby table.
Elara’s breath caught sharply.
His hand rested beside her waist, not touching, but close enough to burn anyway.
“Listen carefully,” he said quietly. “You are being hunted by forces you cannot even comprehend yet.”
His voice dropped lower.
“And if you keep challenging me instead of surviving, you will die.”
The words should have frightened her.
Instead, heat curled unexpectedly beneath her skin.
Kael noticed.
His expression darkened instantly.
Then, something growled beneath the floor.
Both of them froze.
The marble trembled violently.
A c***k split across the center of the hall, black smoke pouring upward from the darkness below.
And from inside the abyss, a deep voice whispered only one name.
“Elara.”
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD