We round a corner and I feel it before I see it.
The air changes. My body tightens before my brain catches up—that instinct that sayswrong wrong wrongeven if I don’t know why.
Locke shifts and I’m looking at three men on the path ahead. One makes eye contact that gives me the ick. They’re waiting for us.
My group slows.
“Harrick,” Locke says. Low. He’s not happy to see them.
The one in front—tall, broad, dark hair slicked back—smiles. It doesn’t reach his eyes.
“Heard you finally got your missing piece.” His gaze slides past Locke, past Kyron, and lands on me. “This her?”
No one answers.
Harrick tilts his head, looking me over like I’m something he found on the ground. “Huh. Not what I expected.”
What the fuck?
“Walk away,” Locke says.
“Just saying hello.” Harrick’s smile widens. “Being neighborly.”
I watch it happen like it’s in slow motion.
Kyron shifts his weight. Beckett steps forward—not in front of me, but beside me, close enough that I feel the heat of him. Vaelor moves from behind me to my left, blocking the angle. Rane goes still in a way I haven’t seen from him before.
And Locke—
Locke doesn’t move at all. But something in him changes. Something in the air around him goes cold and heavy, like the space itself is holding its breath.
“I said walk away.”
The words are quiet. Flat. Final.
Harrick’s group shifts. One of them mutters something. Another takes a half-step back.
Harrick holds Locke’s gaze for a long moment. Then he laughs—short, dismissive—andshrugs.
“Fine. See you around, new girl.”
They walk past us. One of them shoulders close enough that I feel the air move, and Beckett’s hand twitches at his side but doesn’t rise.
Then they’re gone.
I realize I’m not breathing. I force myself to inhale.
No one says anything. They just start walking again, like nothing happened.
But something did happen. I don’t know what, but I can feel it in my bones. A shiver runs down my spine, but it’s not from fear.
That’s a problem.
Why aren’t I afraid of what I just saw? I’m oddly calm and that doesn’t feel right. But it also feels more right than anything I’ve ever felt.
That scares me more than Harrick ever could.
The Academy building looms ahead, stone and glass and windows that catch the morning light. People stream in and out, normal and unbothered, like the world didn’t just tilt sideways on the path behind us.
