Aylinor did not look away.

  “I wasn’t following you.”

  The words were flat. Unadorned. As if they required no defense.

  Ardion frowned slightly. “That’s not an answer.”

  “It is,” she said.

  She stepped closer, just enough to lower her voice without turning the moment into a challenge.

  “I was following something else.”

  He searched her face, not for fear, not for hesitation, but for the smallest fracture that would suggest she was hiding behind half-truths.

  There was none.

  His senses strained without clear cause as the wolf in him grew uneasy.

  Then she leaned in, close enough that only he could hear her.

  “Something that follows you, Your Highness.”

  The breath caught in his chest before he realized it had.

  He looked at her again, more carefully than before.

  Her eyes held his. Too steady. Too clear.

  For a fraction of a second, he thought he saw something beneath the faint sheen of her contact lenses, a fleeting glimmer of silver threaded with gold. It vanished almost immediately, leaving him unsure whether it had ever been there at all.

  He told himself it was nothing.

  Still, the depth in her gaze felt deliberate. Controlled. As if she were seeing far more than she ever intended to acknowledge.

  “You’re saying that like you expect me to believe you,” he said.

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  “I don’t expect anything,” Aylinor replied.

  Footsteps approached.

  “There you are,” Sylas said lightly. “We’ve been looking all over—”

  He stopped when he noticed Ardion’s expression.

  Kael slowed beside him. Deric followed, eyes sharp, quietly assessing.

  “What happened?” Deric asked.

  Before Ardion could answer, an attendant approached Aylinor, posture formal, voice low.

  “Miss Frederick. The principal’s office. Immediately.”

  Aylinor inclined her head slightly, her eyes shifting to the attendant without fully turning toward him. Then she stepped past Ardion, following without pause.

  She did not look back.

  Ardion remained where he was.

  “What did she say?” Kael asked.

  Ardion scoffed. “Nothing worth listening to.”

  Sylas raised a brow. “Don’t tell me she’s another Selene type. Mysterious. Dramatic.”

  “She’s not,” Ardion snapped, irritation flickering. “She just wants attention.”

  The words settled uneasily in his mouth.

  Deric studied him. “You sure about that?”

  Ardion didn’t answer.

  His gaze lingered on the path she’d taken, jaw tightening as if forcing the thought away.

  Whatever she thought she was doing, whatever strange performance she’d decided to put on—

  He refused to believe it had anything to do with him.

  “………”

  The principal’s office was quiet in a way the academy rarely was.

  Aylinor stood where she was directed, hands loosely folded behind her back. The room smelled faintly of parchment and polished wood. On the desk between them lay a single envelope, plain and unmarked.

  Principal Verain did not sit.

  “This was delivered earlier today,” he said carefully. “Privately.”

  He did not say by whom.

  Aylinor stepped forward and took the envelope. The seal offered no resistance.

  Inside was a single sheet of paper.

  No crest. No signature.

  Only two lines.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------

  The preparations have begun, as you suggested.

  The prince remains unaware, for now.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------

  Aylinor folded the paper once.

  Then again.

  Her expression did not change.

  “I assume,” Principal Verain said quietly, “that you understand what this concerns.”

  “I do,” she replied.

  He nodded. “You’re dismissed, Miss Frederick.”

  She turned to leave.

  At the door, she paused.

  “If anyone asks,” she said calmly, “this meeting concerned academy matters.”

  Principal Verain inclined his head. “Of course.”

  Aylinor stepped back into the corridor.

  The academy carried on as it always did. Voices echoed. Doors opened and closed. Students passed without a second glance.

  She moved among them seamlessly.

  She didn’t look like someone meant to matter.

  And yet, somewhere beyond the academy walls, preparations were already in motion.

  She was standing exactly where she intended to be.