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The confrontation.

I know what I should say.

I'm their professor.

They're students. They abandoned their assigned responsibilities during an official Academy event so they could sneak into the woods and do whatever had put grass in Evangeline's hair.

I should reprimand them.

Firmly.

Instead, I'm already mentally negotiating with myself.

Maybe I can just tell them to go back inside.

Maybe that's enough.

Maybe—

“Is that how you speak to your professor?”

Grimm's voice slices through the night.

Quiet.

Deep.

Not loud at all.

It doesn't need to be.

Randall goes still. So does Evangeline.

Honestly? So do I.

Grimm hasn't moved from beside me, but something about him has changed.

The amused stranger is gone. The man standing there now seems bigger somehow.

Harder.

Commanding.

His eyes are fixed on the teenagers.

Randall swallows.

“What?”

Grimm takes one step forward.

“Your professor asked you a question.”

Randall glances at me. Then back at Grimm.

“Who are you?”

Wrong question.