Saoirse
Now I’m back at the Academy. The cold stone hallways felt more suffocating than they did yesterday, and maybe that was because of the way every pair of eyes turned the moment I crossed the courtyard. Whispers trailed behind me like a cape made of thorns. Laughter too loud, voices too fake. Girls clutching their books tighter. Boys with barely concealed smirks. The vultures of the Royal Lycan Academy never waited for a body to go cold.
And then—
A figure stepped in front of me.
Blocking my path.
Rhaziel.
Tall. Disheveled in that perfectly intentional way. Red uniform jacket unbuttoned, hair falling slightly in his eyes, and that expression… damn it. That look. That soft wounded puppy look he wore like a badge when things got complicated.
“You didn’t come to me,” he said, voic
