Lucien Vale
Clara stormed through the bay doors like she owned the entire compound. Silver hair pulled into a severe knot, she wore it like armor, her suit still crisp despite the desert heat, her heels hitting the concrete with sharp, furious precision. I stayed where I was, blood drying on my knuckles.
She didn’t even wait to reach me before unloading.
“You absolute child,” she bit out. “You walked out of that university auditorium in the middle of the panel. No heads-up to me. No word to security. You left the moderator standing there like an i***t while the press smelled fresh chaos. I had to invent some bullshit about an urgent mechanical issue with the car. Do you have any idea how that played out?”
I flexed my injured hand, feeling the sting travel up my arm. It grounded me. Bar
