He was waiting.It was, nominally, his duty.Headmistress Langford expected him to be the face of St. Valen’s: calm, controlled, eternal. He stood by the main arch, a pillar of the place, the cold air a familiar, bracing discipline. He’d seen a dozen new legacies arrive, all with the same polished veneers and hollow, ambitious eyes.Then, the car.It was black, silent, and expensive—nothing new. But what emerged was.First, the dog. A shadow detaching itself from the velvet interior, a creature of midnight and muscle with unsettlingly yellow eyes. A statement.Then, her.Althea Sombra.The name already felt like a shadow on his tongue. The cold air, his old all, seemed to kiss her immediately, finding the bare skin of her wrist. He watched her stand against Langford, her posture not defiant, but rooted.“He’s disciplined,” she said, her voice soft, yet it cut through the damp air. “Mostly.”That word—mostly—snagged in his mind. It was a crack in the facade. It suggested a ‘less’ that
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด : 2025-10-25 อ่านเพิ่มเติม