Rowana walked backward down the corridor, watching Lysara with open delight.

  “You know, the librarian’s going to love you.”

  Lysara winced and tried—unsuccessfully—to tug a stubborn strand of hair free from the translucent residue still clinging near her temple. “I washed my hands.”

  “That’s not the concern. It’s the aura. They can sense grime. You so much as breathe near a first-edition compendium and someone will start ringing a bell.”

  “I don’t breathe on the books.”

  “You absolutely do,” Rowana said. “You hover. Menacingly. With questions.”

  “I was going to research in the library.”

  “Not today.”

  “Today you look like you lost a fight with an adhesive spirit.”

  They rounded the last corner toward the dorms—

  —and nearly walked straight into two people coming the other way.

  Kayden smiled immediately. “There you are. I was just—”

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  He stopped.

  Took a good at Lysara.

  He blinked once, then twice. “Did the lab win?”

  Rowana didn’t miss a beat. “Decisively.”

  Kayden laughed. “Impressive. I didn’t think first-years were allowed to duel.”

  Lysara opened her mouth to respond—

  —and became aware of the other presence.

  The man beside Kayden hadn’t moved. His uniform was immaculate, crest aligned with meticulous care. Where Kayden’s posture leaned open, this one was closed, still, deliberate.

  His gaze landed on her.

  He looked at her the way instructors looked at incorrect answer.

  Lysara felt heat rush up her neck. She suddenly became aware of everything at once: the goo still caught in her hair, the smear on her sleeve, the way her glasses had slid slightly crooked.

  She swallowed.

  Kayden glanced sideways. “This is—”

  “I don’t believe we’ve met,” the other man said smoothly.

  The words were polite.

  The tone was not.

  Lysara tried to speak. Failed. Tried again.

  “I—sorry—I was—”

  Nothing coherent followed.

  Rowana frowned, looking between them. “You alright?”

  Lysara nodded too quickly. Then shook her head. Then did neither convincingly.

  Kayden’s brow creased. “Hey—”

  Too late.

  “The book needs to be washed.”

  The words were wrong the moment they left her mouth.

  Heat flared in her cheeks as the room brightened, every difference suddenly loud.

  Lysara turned and bolted.

  Not gracefully. Not strategically. Just fast, boots slapping stone as she fled down the corridor.

  There was a moment of stunned silence.

  “What in the seven disciplines was that?”

  “I… don’t know.”

  Out of sight, folded into a corner’s shadow, Lysara pressed her back to the wall., breathing hard, heart racing with a sudden, unwanted awareness she absolutely refused to unpack—

  heat, humiliation, cold golden eyes, and the unbearable fact that Kayden had seen her run like that.

  So much for staying unnoticed.