The professor dismisses us and I’m out of my chair before she finishes speaking, heading for the door, needing to get out of this room and away from the circle and the staring and—
“Nova.”
Trey’s voice. Low. Behind me.
I stop. I don’t knowwhy I stop.
He catches up to me in the hallway, and for a second we just stand there. He’s taller than I remembered. Broader. His eyes are gray and searching and I don’t know what he’s looking for.
“I just wanted to say—” He stops. Runs a hand through his hair. “That was shit. What she made you do. I’m sorry.”
I don’t know what to do with an apology I didn’t ask for.
“It’s fine,” I say.
“It’s not.” He says it simply, like it’s obvious. “But okay.”
There’s a pause. He’s still looking at me like he wants to say something else, and I’m still standing here like an idiot, and I don’t understand why I haven’t walked away yet.
“Trey.” Silas’s voice cuts through the moment. He’s in the doorway, watching us. “You coming?”
Trey’s jaw tightens. Just for a second. “Yeah.”
He looks at me one more time. “I’ll see you around, Nova.”
Then he’s gone, walking toward Silas, and I’m left standing in the hallway trying to figure out what just happened.
I find the exit. Push through the doors into the afternoon light.
The guys are waiting. All five of them, spread across the steps like they’ve been there the whole time. Beckett sees me first and straightens. Then they’re all looking, all reading whatever’s on my face.
“How bad?” Rane asks.
I think about the circle. The bare wrist. Trey’s eyes. Silas’s smile.
“I survived,” I say.
It’s not an answer. They know it’s not an answer.
But no one pushes.
We walk home together, and I don’t look back.
Chapter 14
Trey
I don’t know what just happened.
I’m walking beside Silas, same as always, but my head is still back in that room. Back in the hallway. Back with her.
Nova.
She looked at me like—I don’t know. Like she recognized something. Like my words meant something to her that I didn’t even know they meant.
I couldn’t figure out who I wanted to be.
I said it without thinking. Looked right at her when I said it. And she didn’t look away.
