“Whoa—”
Strong hands caught my arms before I lost my balance.
“Easy there.”
I blinked quickly, my thoughts still spinning as I looked up.
“Sorry,” I said automatically.
The man in front of me smiled slightly.
Professor Daniel Whitmore, one of the linguistics faculty members who had joined the department around the same time I did, was watching me with mild concern.
“You alright?” he asked.
I nodded too quickly.
“Yeah, just… distracted.”
“That much was obvious,” he said lightly.
I tried to return the smile, though I suspected it didn’t look particularly convincing.
“Long day?”
“You could say that.”
Daniel studied my face for a moment longer.
“You have the face of someone who just had a small disaster dropped on her desk.”
A laugh escaped me despite myself.
“That is unfortunately not far from the truth.”
“Well,” he said with a shrug, “welcome to academia. Disasters tend to show up without warning.”
The casual humor helped ease the tension in my chest slightly.
“True.”
“You sure you’re okay?” he asked again. “You ran into me like you were trying to escape something.”
The question came closer to the truth than he realized.
“I’m fine,” I said.
We exchanged a few more words about upcoming lectures and the usual department chaos that came with a new administration settling into place. The conversation was easy, normal in a way that felt strangely comforting after the storm inside Hayden’s office.
But halfway through Daniel’s sentence, a strange sensation crept along the back of my neck.
A chill. The unmistakable feeling that someone was watching me. The air behind me felt suddenly heavier. My attention drifted past Daniel’s shoulder toward the far end of the hallway. For a second I thought I saw movement near the corner.
A tall figure standing partially in shadow. My breath caught.
Hayden.
Or at least the unmistakable silhouette of him. By the time my eyes focused properly, the space was empty again. Daniel followed my gaze.
