"The wraith attack last night," he says, conversationally, as if we're discussing the weather. "I heard you were on the grounds."
"I'm sure you heard a lot of things."
"I heard you and Ashford cleared the perimeter together. I heard the ward failure was total." A pause. "I heard somethingsnapped during the fight that doesn't appear in any of the official reports filed this morning."
My steps don't change. "You're very well-informed for someone who wasn't there."
"I make it my business to be well-informed." His voice drops slightly. Not threatening. Something else, something harder to categorize. "Angelic."
I stop walking.
He uses my name rarely. When he does, it doesn't come out the way it does from most people. It comes out like something he's made a decision about.
"What," I say.
He faces me fully now. The arcade is still empty, morning light laying flat bars across the stone between us. His expression is complicated in a way he's not bothering to hide, which from Caspian Thorne means something.
"A partial reaper bond," he says quietly. "Formed under combat conditions. Amplification-driven." He holds my gaze. "Do you understand what that means for the other houses? What it changes about the political situation you're already in?"
"I understand plenty."
"I don't think you understand all of it." Something moves behind his eyes. Not cruelty. Not the performance he puts on in public. Something raw and carefully leashed. "Be careful. That's all I'm saying."
"Be careful," I repeat. "That's your contribution."
"For now." His jaw tightens briefly. "There are people at this academy who will use this against you. The bond is not a secret you can keep for long, and when it becomes known, every faction with an interest in your situation will move on it."
"Is that a threat?"
"No." A beat, shorter than I expect. "It's a warning. There's a difference, and you're smart enough to know which one this is."
I study him for a moment. His hands are at his sides, loose, not performing anything. The careful predatory grace he usually wears like armor is absent, or maybe just lowered, and what's underneath it is harder to look at because it doesn't match what I'm supposed to think about Caspian Thorne.
"Why warn me?" I ask.
He doesn't answer immediately. When he does, his voice is so low I almost miss it. "I have my reasons."
He pushes off the arch and walks away, back toward the main academy building, not looking back.
I stand in the empty arcade with two fresh complications and a bond still humming in my chest and the memory of a kiss that was declared meaningless before the warmth faded.
The morning light shifts through the arches. Somewhere above the treeline, the sky is clear, no atmospheric disturbance, no wraith-driven gray pressing against the upper atmosphere.
Clean. Ordinary. Like last night didn't happen.
I shoulder my bag and walk toward my next class. The bond follows. It always follows now. That's the part I'm still learning to carry.
Chapter 13
"The council convened at dawn," Sage says, dropping onto the bench beside me with her breakfast tray and the particular urgency she reserves for information she's been sitting on all morning. "All four houses. Emergency session in the upper council rooms."
I pour myself more coffee. "I know. I felt it before I saw it."
She gives me a look. "The bond?"
"The mood. Half the faculty walked through breakfast looking like someone had kicked their dinner." I wrap both hands around my mug. "What did you hear?"
"Enough." She lowers her voice, leaning in slightly. "Malik got close enough to catch pieces before the warding went up. They're discussing the null bond situation. Specifically, whether a partial reaper bond with an unclassified null constitutes a political liability for Nocturne's existing house structure."
