“Can I go, Professor?” I whispered to the floor. I was never going to look him in the eyes ever again.
“No,” he said silkily.
Pain throbbed in my temples, and I wanted to scream at the injustice of it all. In three strides he’d crossed the room and loomed over me.
Electricity filledmy nose.
His hot breath fluttered against my ear, and I whimpered at his proximity.
“Your scores in Lost Classical Lore are unacceptable.” His voice was deceptively soft. “Your analyses are surface level and argumentative. Your grammar is abysmal, and you write in run-on sentences.”
I swallowed thickly.
Numbers had always made sense, words less so.
He leaned closer. “Your work product is... infuriating.”
His words were saying one thing, but his body language was saying something else. Once again, there was a conversation happening that I was missing.
Why are Chthonics so freakin’ cryptic and confusing?
Rage, violence, and a tangle of sharp emotions too intense to name rolled off Augustus. He was backing me into a corner, a predator playing with its food.
He just violated my mind, and now he’s threatening me.I didn’t know if I wanted to sob or scream.
“Is that a-all, P-Professor?” I breathed out, barely able to speak.
“For now,” he said but didn’t move, like he knew how much standing in his presence was getting under my skin. “You’re dismissed.”
I stumbled blindly toward the door, refusing to give the monster my back.
“Oh—and one more thing,” he called as I stepped across the threshold, so close to freedom.
He was toying with me.
I whimpered.
“Your Thagorean scores will only carry you for so long. I don’t give a fuck that you’re a math prodigy.” He chuckled cruelly. “You are a woman in a man’s world. It’s a dishonor on all of us for allowing this to continue. Make smarter choices, or... there will be consequences, Alexis.” My name fell from his lips, like it was the wickedest of sins. “You’re not proving what you think you are for women—you’re just screwing yourself.”
I don’t think I’m proving anything. I’m just trying to survive.
“If you can’t take care of yourself,” he said softly, “someone else might step in to do it for you. You’ve been warned.”
Blood-covered eyes glowed in my peripheral vision.
I stared at the floor, gasping.
What the heck is happening right now? What does he mean about stepping in?
He was trying to scare me away—right? It didn’t feel like that was happening. It felt like I was missing something.
Something big.
It’s that he doesn’t hate you; he absolutely despises everything about your existence.
I didn’t look back as I ran into the library. Collapsing behind the stacks, hand on my frantically racing heart, I struggled to inhale.
It was official.
