"She did it on purpose." I cross my arms. "Eveline. She touched you and I felt it and she knew I would."
His jaw tightens. "I know."
"You know. She used the bond to hurt me and you just stood there—"
"What do you want me to do?" He comes around the desk and there's something fraying in his voice now. "Tell me exactly what you want, because if it's about the engagement, that conversation doesn't end well for anyone."
"I want you to close the bond."
"I told you I can't."
"Then block it. Do whatever reapers do when they want someone out of their head."
"I've been trying since it formed." He stops close enough that I have to look up. "Every morning when you walk into class. Every time Seraphina's people come at you and the bond lights up and I have to stop myself from—" He cuts himself off.
"From what?"
"From making this worse than it already is."
"So you can suppress it. Eveline knows that. She's using it because she knows I can't do the same."
"Yes."
"And your plan is to stand there while she does it."
"My plan is to manage a political situation that affects this academy, the council, and you." His voice drops. "The engagement isn't personal. It's not something I chose to hurt you."
"I know why it exists." I step closer because if he's going to fill the room with controlled intensity then I get to take up space too. "That doesn't mean I have to feel your fiancée's hands on you through a bond I never asked for."
"No. You don't."
We're too close now. It happened without planning, the way arguments do in rooms that aren't big enough. I can see the tension across his shoulders, the way he's holding himself still.
"The bond makes it impossible," he says quietly. "To forget you. To categorize you as something manageable. I can shut down everything else and I cannot shut that."
I should step back.
I don't.
"Ryder."
"Don't say my name like that."
"Like what?"
"Like it means something. Because if you do, I'm going to—"
The door swings open.
Lady Eveline stands there taking in the scene. Her gaze moves from Ryder to me, cataloguing the distance between us, the state of the air, the way people look when they've been interrupted saying something they shouldn't.
She smiles.
"I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were busy, Ryder."
"Eveline." His voice goes flat. The wall slams back up so fast I'd miss it if I hadn't watched it happen before. "Student meeting."
"Of course." She steps in, not hurrying, and focuses on me like I'm something she's been curious about. "Miss Fairmont. The null." She lets the word hang there. "I've heard so much about you."
