Kael's POV
I felt it before I walked in. The drop in temperature that had nothing to do with the weather, the kind that meant a room full of people had collectively decided to hold their breath. I pushed through the cafeteria doors, and my gaze found Ayla in under a second.
She was sitting exactly where she'd been left.
Sauce drying on her cheek. Spaghetti sliding from her hair in slow, deliberate humiliation. Steam still curled from the mess spread across the table and the floor around her feet.
Everyone else was frozen, staring. The whole cafeteria was watching.
And Ayla sat in the center of it like none of it touched her. Hands flat on the table. Back straight. Face blank and still as carved stone.
A chill moved through me, deep and cold, settling in the pit of my stomach.
I forc
