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“It's about your mother.”

I stared at him, walking beside him.

“How did you...”

“Certain things are impossible to miss.”

I swallowed, looking down at the ground in resignation.

Great, Bayla.

“The way you stare out the window in every seminar, the way you look at the Quatura on campus as if you want to confront them at any moment…” He sighed. “You want to get her out of there.”

Alarmed at how conspicuous I was being, how transparent I was, I pressed my lips together.

“I wanna leave this town with her.”

It was the truth. And he should know.

“A mistake.”

“What?”

Even more confused than I already was, I looked sideways at my literature professor, searching for an explanation for his behavior, but my gaze lingered on his grinding jaw.

“Blairville needs you.”

He looked me straight in the eye. And suddenly I felt a responsibility on my shoulders that didn't belong there.

“Me?” I laughed, trying to cover up my uncertainty by continuing to look around the next picturesque courtyard. “I...”

Alarik stopped abruptly and turned to me.

Overwhelmed, I also paused and turned to him.

“What can I do to make you stay in Blairville?”

Paralyzed, I looked up at him.

“Why is it so important to you that I stay in Blairville?”

Sometimes this man was a mystery to me.

He stared at me, and for the first time since I knew him, I saw something hesitant in his eyes. And something else... Pain?

“Hope,” he said quietly. “You give me hope.”

I blinked, trying to process the meaning of his words.

He turned away from me, wandered across the courtyard, and looked up at the statue of the man whose stone wings seemed to be melting as he stretched his hands toward the sky, as if reaching for something.

“So, tell me what I can do to make you feel more comfortable here.”

I didn't understand. Why was it so important to him that I stayed? How could he see hope in someone as cowardly and insignificant as me? Him?

“I've already cancelled the training sessions my brother had planned for you with random men from the pack. Obviously, it's risky. I also won’t bother you with any further transformation training. It’s pointless, and we both know you're not a Senseque.”

He had told Emely that from now on, I would be primarily training with her, not with the pack. Whatever that meant for me.