Mara realized two deeply unfortunate things over the next ten minutes. First, Alaric Arden, despite behaving like a beautifully dressed natural disaster, was actually capable of normal conversation when he chose to be. Secondly, that somehow made him more dangerous. “You annotate aggressively,” he observed quietly.Mara looked up from her notebook. Across the table, his attention rested on the chaotic collection of arrows, underlines, irritated commentary, and one deeply judgmental sketch of a philosopher she disliked academically. “That man knew what he wrote,” she said defensively. “And still published it.”A faint crease appeared between Alaric’s brows as he studied the margin note. THIS argument feels emotionally dishonest. “You argue with textbooks often?” “Only when they deserve it.” Silence, then, astonishingly, “That seems frequent.” Mara blinked. Was that humor? Subtle, dry and buried beneath seven layers of emotional repressi
Last Updated : 2026-07-29
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