"But... but this dual wolf, why are they so sure it’s her?"
The headmaster smiles thinly, relieved to have survived the imdiate threat of decapitation. He adjusts his cufflinks as if to say finally, a civilized question. "They aren’t sure. Not yet. But the Council is... attentive. And given the recent incident during the..."
Darien’s pulse spikes and he impatiently cuts him off. "What incident?"
Halric gives him a look so mild it almost qualifies as smug. "The striker."
Darien frowns. "The striker was faulty."
Halric’s voice cos like a candy dipped in sothing poisonous. "Was it?"
The room seems to tighten. The desk’s surface gleams under the fluorescent light, and Darien’s reflection; jaw set, eyes rimd in gold from Kairos simring underneath, stares back like a wolf behind glass.
Halric leans forward. "Between you and , the striker wasn’t faulty. It was destroyed. Busted. Its magic core was fractured clean through. That machine is built to withstand five Alphas at full output. Yet it splintered like glass when your little Moon Blessed girl hit it."
For a mont, Darien forgets how to breathe.
"You’re saying..." He gulps. "You’re saying Heidi really did that?"
Halric’s shrug is small and designed to irritate the curious Bellamy before him. "We had to cover it up, of course. Claid the enchantnt was outdated, an internal fault in the power seal. You understand. Can’t have the school gossiping that a tiny Moon Blessed could tear apart an indestructible piece of tech."
Darien’s mind blanks out again. Heidi? He pictures her...
He rembers the stubborn set of her jaw, the way her hands ball into fists when she’s angry at him for standing back while Morgan and Grayson—whom she surprisingly now fancies bully her, that ridiculous hair always escaping its tie. She’s powerful, yes, but that kind of strength is Impossible.
Kairos growls sowhere inside him. "Not impossible, bro. It’s dangerous."
Darien presses his palms to the edge of the desk, grounding himself. "You’re telling she broke it. The striker. The machine that’s designed to contain Alpha-level energy—she ACTUALLY broke it?"
Halric spreads his hands like a stage magician. "Well, I didn’t say she ant to. But the facts are hard to ignore."
Darien can’t help it as he lets out a short, incredulous laugh. "You’re out of your damn mind."
The headmaster’s eyes glint. "Am I? Or is it possible that what you call madness is simply the truth in its underwear?"
Darien squints. "The truth in its—what?"
Halric waves a dismissive hand. "A taphor, Mr. Bellamy. Don’t be so literal."
Darien rubs his temple. "You sound like my brother Amias after two bottles of ad."
"Then perhaps he’s the wise one," Halric replies, shaking his head.
Darien glares at the man. "You’re not funny."
"Neither are you," Halric replies, arching an eyebrow. "Yet here we are, both of us trying."
There’s a sharp silence. It’s tense and absurd, but sohow alive. Outside, rain starts to needle against the windows, soft at first, then louder, as if the weather itself has lost patience with this conversation.
Darien’s throat feels tight. His father had always said prophecy was a ga for fools and poets. But if Heidi truly had that much power...
"How much does the Council know?" he asks.
"Enough to be concerned," Halric answers. "But not enough to act... yet."
Darien catches the implication. "aning they’re watching her."
"aning," Halric says, "Just so you know, the school’s whispering about you too. You and your brothers. To see how this... little entanglent develops."
Darien’s pulse jumps again. "Entanglent?"
Halric smirks. "Don’t look so scandalized. Everyone’s seen the way you four circle her. It’s practically a family sport."
Darien growls low in his throat. "Careful."
The headmaster lifts both hands in playful surrender. "Just stating the obvious, Lord Bellamy. You can’t expect a girl surrounded by four Alpha heirs to go unnoticed."
Darien paces away from the desk, fingers dragging through his hair. The fluorescent lights hum overhead, and his reflection in the window looks like soone older and harder. The world outside is drowned in rain and the campus glows with neon bouncing off puddles, horns wailing faintly in the distance.
"She’s in danger," he mutters.
"Arguably, she is the danger," Halric says pleasantly.
Darien turns on him, eyes burning gold. "Don’t play word gas with . If the Council believes she’s this—this dual wolf, they’ll move against her. You know they will."
"Of course," Halric says, tone maddeningly calm. "But only when they’re certain. Until then, we observe."
Darien slams a fist onto the desk, and the wood groans in protest. "Observe?! She’s not so lab rat you can keep under glass!"
"Then perhaps, you should have thought of that before getting attached to so Moon Blessed. You’re not one to care about such a lowlife. What really is the reason behind all the attention she’s getting from the Bellamys? Your brothers even went into the labyrinth when coincidentally, it was the sa ti she was sent in there." Halric squints, eyes on every expression of Darien’s, discerning.
The latter grits his teeth, forcing his annoyance to remain at bay. Apparently, no matter how careful he is, the truth always seems to have a way to co out.
Argh!
Had his stupid brothers been like him and only interacted with her privately, they wouldn’t be under the school’s scrutiny. Hell, if his mother discovers he’s fated to a Moon Blessed...
No. No. No. That’s not important right now.
"Are you okay, Mr. Bellamy? You look like a man who has just been stood up." Halric’s jib interrupts his thoughts
That hits like a punch to the ribs. For a heartbeat, Darien forgets how to respond. His mind floods with images: Heidi’s half-smile, the flash of her eyes when she argued with him, the way her voice trembled when she thought no one noticed. Attached is a mild word for what he feels—a word for strings, not chains.
"I want to know what the pack plans for her," he says finally.
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