Moonlight carved pale shards across Headmaster Rowan’s office floor, turning the dark wood into a fractured landscape. Kael Ravenwood stood stiffly before the massive desk, arms locked behind his back, every muscle wired with tension from the encounter at the observatory.
Rowan didn’t speak at first.
He simply stared at Kael, fingers drumming lightly on a stack of sealed reports — all stamped with the academy’s red crest.
Reports Kael suspected were no longer about the rogue pack alone.
“Do you know why I called you here?” the Headmaster finally asked.
Kael’s jaw tightened. “If this is about the disturbance—”
“It’s about the girl,” Rowan cut in, voice sharp as splintered ice.
Aria.
Kael forced his expression neutral, but the memory of her trembling silence… the flare of her wrist m
