Avian heard it before she felt it.The sharp whistling of the wind like a breath of warm air glazing her cheek as the thin cane landed horizontally over her left knuckles splayed wide and limp on the desk.A gasp lodged itself in the ball of her throat; a pathetic sound that ultimately eked out as another as she startled upright, blinking rapidly past the film of sleep that had briefly obscured her vision. Belatedly, she began to withdraw her vulnerable hand from the table when the cane landed once more, aimed with military precision over her interphalangeal joints.A tremendous shock of pain ran up her hand, and she clenched down on her teeth to prevent making another sound that might upset him. “Proverbs twelve, twenty-four.” The voice demanded from h