Intentional.
His head snapped up, eyes wide.
“Seph,” Ash breathed.
And the world shifted.
A moment ago he was barely standing, guards pinning his arms, taser burns still sparking across his skin.
But when that breeze brushed his cheek, bringing her voice— warm, terrified,hers— something ancient and feral lit behind his eyes.
“Ash?” I said carefully.
He didn’t hear me.
A guard adjusted his grip—
Ash exploded intoaction.
He slammed his shoulder back with brutal force, cracking the guard’s cheekbone.
Before the second guard could even react, Ash twisted free and drove his knee into the man’s ribs hard enough that the guard wheezed and dropped.
A third guard lunged, grabbing for Ash’s arm.
Ash didn’t hesitate.
He caught the man’s wrist, crushed bone under his grip—
a sickening crack— then tore the smallest finger clean off with a single, efficient twist.
The guard screamed, stumbling backward, clutching his ruined hand.
Ash didn’t even look at him.
His eyes were wild, glowing, fixed on something none of us could see.
“ASH!” Wild barked. “You will STOP—”
He turned toward her slowly.
And for the first time in her life,
Miranda Wild understood exactly what she was speaking to.
Not a student.
Not a boy.
A predator.
The kind that didn’t stop because someone yelled.
The kind that only stopped if it got what it wanted.
And what Ash wanted was Seph.
He didn’t even look at her.
