Her by the fountain.
Her hand gripping that cheap bag strap like it was the only thing keeping her anchored.
Her door.
The note.
The sound she tried to bury in her pillow.
They aren’t talking about students.
They’re talking about young women no one comes for.
Silas mutters, “Victor is a hothead. He’s a child.”
“He’s a child with a private militia and a grudge,” I say, dropping my voice. “He doesn’t care about your etiquette. He wants his father’s power back, and he will use whoever he has to get it.”
Valen looks at the members, calm as a blade laid flat on a table. “Victor knows your rules. He knows exactly how far you’ll go before reputation, protocol, and liability stop you.”
His eyes cut to me.
“Saint doesn’t have that problem.”
The silence that follows is the first honest thing this room has given me.
I smile. “You want to stop him without soiling your silk ties?” I ask. “Let me out.”
Silas looks at the ledger. Then at me.
After two long minutes, they know they don’t have a choice. The sons of Kenyan have wives, and their children are at risk. The risk is too great if they are the only ones involved.
The vote is four before he adds his own.
As the cuffs fall away, Azriel catches them. His jaw tight.
“You’re out,” he says quietly. “But you stay away from her. Not the Order’s condition. Mine.”
That gets my attention in a way the vote didn’t. Not because he warned me. Because he thinks she can still be kept from me.
I pat his cheek with a hand that still smells faintly of blood. “I’ll be on my best behavior, brother.” I smile, triumphantly. “I’m a student now. I need to get some books.”
I walk out of the chamber and up through the church into the blue predawn. The campus is empty. The buildings stand in their ancient, patient silence. I think about the lecture hall. The girl by the fountain. The note still on her floor.
First period starts in three hours.
Amy
The note is still on the floor where I dropped it.
I haven’t moved it.
I haven’t touched it again.
I just stand at the edge of my dorm room in yesterday’s clothes, staring at it the way you stare at a thing you know is going to change everything.
My alarm went off seventeen minutes ago, and I haven’t turned it off. I just let it scream until it gave out because that felt like the appropriate soundtrack for this moment.
Someone was outside my door.