CHAPTER FIVE — THE SCHOOL SUSPICION
883 Words
By midday, Pennysilvia had shifted.
Levi felt it before he saw it.
The corridors no longer flowed around him. They parted too neatly, conversations dipping as he passed. Wolves who normally met his gaze now looked away a heartbeat too late. Witches gathered closer to one another, fingers brushing wards etched into rings and cuffs.
A notice board near the east stairwell had been cleared.
Not emptied — scrubbed.
Whatever had been pinned there before was gone, leaving pale outlines like scars beneath the glass.
Levi slowed.
His wolf paced beneath his skin, restless, ears pricked.
At the junction outside the alchemy wing, two third-years stood arguing in low voices.
“I’m telling you, it wasn’t there yesterday.”
“Claw marks don’t just appear.”
“Unless—”
Levi’s footstep echoed.
Both boys snapped silent. One swallowed. The other nodded stiffly in greeting before they hurried off in opposite directions.
Levi didn’t turn to watch them go.
He didn’t need to.
The scent lingered — sharp fear, copper-edged curiosity — and beneath it, something else. Attention.
In Combat Forms, the instructor dismissed them early. No explanation. Just a clipped gesture and a look that swept the room like a blade checking for weaknesses.
Levi caught Akira’s reflection in the mirrored wall.
She wasn’t watching the instructor.
She was watching him.
Their eyes met.
Akira’s expression didn’t change, but her jaw tightened. When the bell rang, she was gone before Levi could reach her.
The practice mats were still warm when he knelt to retie his bindings. A shadow fell across the floor.
“Levi.”
He looked up.
Professor Hale stood a few paces away, hands folded behind his back. His gaze slid briefly to Levi’s knuckles — scraped, half-healed — then to his throat, where his pulse beat slow and steady.
“You’ve been excused from evening patrols,” Hale said.
Levi stilled. “I wasn’t informed.”
“You are now.”
A pause.
“Is there a reason?” Levi asked.
Hale’s smile was polite. Precise. “Routine adjustments.”
His eyes flicked, just once, toward the windows that overlooked the lower courtyard.
Levi nodded. “Of course.”
Hale lingered a moment longer, as if weighing something unspoken, then turned and walked away.
Levi finished tying his bindings with fingers that had gone cold.
Luna noticed it differently.
She felt the way conversations bent around her, like she was standing in water no one else could see. The way students stepped aside too quickly — or not at all, shoulders stiff when she brushed past.
In History of Coven Accords, the desk beside her remained empty.
Not because it was assigned that way.
The witch who had sat there yesterday hovered in the aisle, hesitating, before choosing a seat three rows back. She didn’t look at Luna again.
When Luna reached for a shared textbook, the boy across from her flinched hard enough to knock his chair over.
“I—sorry,” he muttered, scrambling to his feet, cheeks flushed. “Didn’t see you.”
She smiled automatically. “It’s okay.”
He didn’t smile back.
By afternoon, the whispers had learned her shape.
They followed her through the halls, pooled near doorways, slipped between the stone arches overhead.
Human.
Why is she here?
Did you hear about the marks?
The Headmaster wouldn’t—
Unless it’s already too late.
Luna stopped at the edge of the central courtyard.
The air felt heavier here. Not dangerous — just watchful.
She hugged her books closer and took a step forward.
A hand caught her sleeve.
“Don’t,” a girl whispered — a witch, eyes wide, grip trembling. “You shouldn’t cross right now.”
Luna blinked. “Why?”
The girl released her as if burned. “Just—don’t.”
Before Luna could ask anything else, the witch vanished into the crowd.
Luna stood alone at the courtyard’s edge, heart thudding, surrounded by invisible lines no one had bothered to draw for her.
Across the stones, Levi stood near the archway.
He hadn’t meant to be there.
His wolf had stopped him cold the moment Luna stepped into the open, every instinct screaming watch.
Their eyes met.
Something flickered across Levi’s face — not fear. Not anger.
Calculation.
He moved.
Not toward her.
In front of her.
Levi crossed the courtyard with deliberate ease, posture relaxed, presence unmistakable. The air shifted as he passed — wolves straightened, witches quieted, whispers died in his wake.
He stopped just short of Luna, close enough that she could hear his breath.
“Go the long way,” he said softly, without looking at her.
Her fingers tightened around her books. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No.”
His jaw flexed.
“But staying here will make it look like you did.”
She hesitated only a second before nodding and stepping back. As she retreated, the pressure eased, the invisible tension rewinding itself around Levi instead.
Eyes turned to him now.
Measuring.
Questioning.
Suspicious.
Levi stayed where he was until Luna disappeared down the far corridor.
Only then did his wolf bare its teeth.
Not at the crowd.
At the fact that the academy had noticed.
And once Pennysilvia noticed something—
It never stopped watching.
- Writer
