"Against other students, maybe." He stops in front of me. "Against Council enforcers? Against Chase?"
My hands clench into fists. "What do you want, Knox?"
"To watch your back." He crosses his arms. "Chase is hunting you. Council building a case. You walk around campus alone, train alone. Makes you vulnerable."
"I can take care of myself."
"I know. But two sets of eyes are better than one." He gestures to the practice dummy. "Show me the form again."
I hesitate, then move through the striking sequence. Knox watches with unsettling intensity.
"There." He steps closer. "You're protecting your left side. Old injury?"
"Cracked rib. A few weeks ago."
"It's healed now. Stop favoring it." He demonstrates the proper form, movements exact and measured. "Strike from center, keep both shoulders level, rotate through the hip."
I copy his movement. Better. Stronger.
"Good." He circles me again. "Now do it until it's instinct."
I work through the sequence while Knox watches. He corrects my footwork twice, adjusts my stance once, then falls silent. Just observing while I train.
After twenty minutes my muscles are burning and sweat drips down my spine. I stop, breathing hard, and find Knox still there. Still watching.
"Why are you really here?" I ask.
"Because I've been watching you for a while." His pale eyes hold mine. "Seeing you walk across campus alone. Train alone. Take on everything by yourself when you don't have to."
My stomach tightens. "You've been following me?"
"Watching. There's a difference." Something shifts in his expression. "Making sure no one gets too close. Making sure Chase doesn't corner you somewhere without witnesses."
"Why would you do that?"
The question hangs between us. Knox is silent for a long moment.
"Because you shouldn't be alone out here," he finally says. "And because I already am."
Understanding crashes through me. Knox, the dangerous loner everyone fears and avoids. Who trains alone, eats alone, exists on the edges because that's where he's safest. He gets it. Gets what it's like to need solitude while simultaneously hating it.
"So you're just going to keep shadowing me around campus?"
The corner of his mouth lifts. Almost a smile. "Already doing it. Just making it official now."
He leaves without another word. I stand alone in the training hall, muscles aching, sweat cooling on my skin, and realize Knox has been protecting me from the shadows for weeks.
I should be unnerved.
Instead, something in my chest settles.
I leave the library at ten with three books on shifter history tucked under my arm.
The campus is quiet at this hour, most students asleep or at least in their dorms. I should be exhausted but my mind is too wired for sleep. Between Chase's inquiry, Caspian's public protection, and Knox's offer to shadow me, I can't stop my thoughts from spinning.
I'm halfway across the quad when the awareness hits me.
Being watched. Multiple directions. Not threatening but present, like invisible threads connecting me to points around the campus perimeter.
