Chapter 26
The library after closing felt like a held breath.
Emilia used her Gazette access card because Harris had put her on late research last month and nobody had taken the permission back. The click of the lock sounded too loud. The stacks were dark except for the exit lights. Dust. Old paper. The faint human smell of a thousand stressed students. Under that, as soon as the second-floor door opened, Nate.
He was already there, hoodie up, back against a window that looked onto the quad. No team. No Ashley. Just him and the talk they had been postponing since the cafeteria. His scent filled the aisle. Restless wolf. Controlled man. She could see the control in his shoulders. She could also see it slipping.
“You came,” he said.
“You told me not to run.”
He pushed off the glass. “S
