“See you later, Maeve,” Mr. Westin says, and then he continues out the door and into the hallway, humming a bit as he goes.
Maeve steps inside.
The moment the door clicks closed behind her, the air becomes so charged I can almost feel the hair on my neck rising in the electrical current. I keep my back to her as I slide my flask into my vest.
“Hello, Professor,” she says. There’s an edge to her voice, like she already knows what she’s doing to me—and is quite pleased with herself for it.
“Miss Vandermere,” I say, realigning my vest with a sharp tug before turning to face her. “What can I do for you?”
The moment I set eyes on her, my resilience starts to crumble.
Her glossy purple hair shines in the light coming through my office window, and her eyes are lined with kohl, making them appear even more dangerous than I already know them to be. She’s wearing her academy uniform—a blouse, pleated skirt, and robe—but if I’m not mistaken, her skirt isslightlytoo short per the academy’s dress code.
It’s a battle not to let my gaze linger on her long legs, but somehow, I’m victorious.
“I wanted to see you,” she says.
My chest constricts.
She’s so blunt, and her boldness feels like a challenge. The predator inside me likes it; I have to fight to keep from taking her bait.
“To discuss the lecture?” I say, moving toward my desk, putting it between me and her—as if that might help preventme from doing one of the many hundreds of things I’d like to do to her.
Her lips quirk up on one side. “No.”
Of course not.
I know why she’s here, yet I still feel the need to fight it, as if I can undo what happened in the stairwell and reverse our relationship to one that hasn’t crossed the line—physically or in my mind.
Maeve moves across my office, and her scent swirls through the air with the movement, setting my teeth on edge.
“So, you’re Felex’s uncle, right?” she asks. Her fingers reach out and trail across the spines of the books on my bookshelf.
At his name, I tip my head. “Yes. He’s my great-nephew. You know him?”
“He was my brother’s roommate.”
My mind replays the conversation I had with Felex last year, the weekend I was in Wysteria for my interview with the headmistress. He told me all about his roommate. “The... orc?”
Maeve turns to me, a small smile on her lips. “Well, stepbrother. Aric.”
Ah. That makes more sense.
And while I’m relieved to be talking about something so casual, I can’t help but wonder why she’s asking.
She steps away from the bookshelf, toward my desk. Immediately, my muscles coil—whether to flee or fight, I’m not yet sure. The appropriate response would certainly be to flee, to get myself out of this office before she can make me break the rules and my own code—again.
But my instincts tell me to fight, to meet her head-on, to accept the challenge she keeps asking me to rise to.
“Why are you asking about Felex?”
Maeve walks closer. She’s on the other side of my desk now, pressing her fingertips into the glossy mahogany surface. “Because I want to get to know you, Severin.”
My jaw aches from me squeezing my teeth together.
She says my name in my dreams, but hearing her say it in my waking moments, I know for certain it has the power to undo me.
Still, I keep up my losing fight, knowing I’m unlikely to survive this. “There’s no purpose in us getting to know each other, Miss Vandermere. You are my student, and I am your professor. Familiarity is unnecessary.”
