(Aria)
The silence after Alice left felt louder than her shouting.
It pressed against my ears, filled the corridor with something raw and unfinished. The guards had retreated, their eyes averted, pretending they hadn’t witnessed the future crack open in real time. Only Luca remained in front of me—solid, immovable, his presence both shield and threat.
“You shouldn’t have stepped in,” I said quietly.
His gaze didn’t soften. “You shouldn’t have been left alone with her.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one that matters.”
I looked past him, down the corridor Alice had fled through. Her heels were gone, but the echo of them lingered like a warning. “She hates me now.”
“She’s afraid,” Luca corrected. “Hate comes later.”
That didn’t comfort me. “You drew a line tonight.”
“Yes.”
