Evaline:
By the ti I finished replying to the last ssage I had received today, I still couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.
Rowan had just hung up, but not before showering with every kind of praise he could think of.
"I still can’t believe it," he had said, laughing softly on the other end. "You actually made both River and Kieran Thorne give in? I have seen pow4rful Alphas crack faster than those two. You are sothing else, Eva."
I rembered the disbelief in his tone, that mix of admiration and faint amusent that always seed to color his words when he spoke to .
"Don’t sound so shocked," I had teased. "You make it sound like they are impossible to deal with."
"Because they are!" he had countered. "River is a fortress, and Kieran is a walking rulebook. I was halfway convinced they would lock you in your room before they ever let you get close to those case files."
His words made laugh. It was a light, relieved sound after everything that had happened the day before. "Well," I said, trying not to sound too pleased, "I suppose I can be persuasive when I want to be."
"Persuasive," he repeated with a chuckle. "That’s one way to put it. Either way, I’m proud of you. And I’m looking forward to Saturday. I’ll drop by in the late morning so we can go through everything together."
That was only a day away, and for once, I felt like I was finally getting sowhere.
"It’s a plan," I told him. "Kieran promised to hand over the case files by this evening, so I’ll have everything ready by the ti you co. In the anti, I’ll start going through the old ones I photographed from the headquarters. There might be sothing there... hopefully."
Rowan humd thoughtfully. "Good. We’ll start with those Saturday morning and see if there’s a connection between the earlier cases and the new ones."
We spoke a little longer after that - the kind of easy, comfortable conversation that reminded how much I missed the academy. Rowan told about the week’s lectures, who was still skipping classes, which professors were on an inspection spree, and how Noah had sohow managed to turn the Runes lab into a disaster zone again.
By the ti we finally said goodbye, my mood had lightened completely. The tension that had followed since morning was gone.
Once the call ended, I took a deep breath and turned my attention to the stack of work waiting on my desk.
Kyros, as usual, hadn’t missed a single lecture note. Every day since my leave began, he had been sending over neat digital folders filled with word docunts, annotated images of blackboard scribbles, and even short videos explaining the more complex formulas by professor in the classrooms.
It was almost five in the evening now, and he had just sent that day’s files - complete with the quiz questions from Runes class.
I smiled faintly. Reliable as always.
Settling comfortably on the couch with my notebook and laptop, I began going through the material, the faint late afternoon light spilling through the open curtains. Lioren was napping peacefully in his crib, his tiny chest rising and falling in the rhythm that never failed to calm .
It had already been a month since his birth - a month of kind of sleepless nights, quiet mornings, and slow, steady recovery. I couldn’t believe how fast ti had passed.
Two months of the second term had already gone by, which ant my exams were only about five weeks away - mid-June, if the schedule held.
By then, I would be back at the academy. Back among my friends. Back where things began.
And maybe, just maybe, I would have so answers about the soul death cases before then.
An hour must have passed while I was buried in my notes, because the next thing I knew, a soft knock sounded at my door.
"Co in," I called, setting my pen down.
The door opened quietly, and there stood Kieran.
He looked freshly returned from the Academy - his white shirt unbuttoned at the top, the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, and a faint trace of fatigue on his face. In his hand, however, was sothing that instantly caught my attention.
A pensive - a sleek, black storage crystal drive - the kind used for secure academy records.
He walked toward and extended it silently.
"The case files," he said simply.
I blinked. "You actually brought them."
He gave a faintly wry look. "I made a promise, didn’t I?"
"Yes, but still," I said, taking the drive and turning it over in my hand. The surface was cool, the faint rune etching along the sides glowing softly. "I still have a doubt that you might change your mind."
Kieran shook his head. "No. I said I would trust you on this. I ant it."
For a brief mont, the warmth in his gaze softened sothing in my chest. Whatever argunts we had, I knew his anger always ca from a place of worry.
"Thank you," I said quietly.
He nodded before adding, "If you are free, you should co with ."
I looked up at him, confused. "Co with you where?"
He smiled faintly, and not the kind of smile that gave answers. "Your first class."
"My what?"
"Your first class," he repeated, this ti with a note of amusent in his tone.
I frowned, glancing down at the pen drive in my hand. "I thought you brought this so I could start studying the case files."
"You will," he said easily. "But not right now."
"Then what do you an by my ’first class’?"
He tilted his head slightly, and for the first ti that evening, I saw that familiar spark of mischief glint in his eyes. "You rember what River said two days ago?"
I blinked. "River says a lot of things. You’ll have to be more specific."
"The part about you needing to start physical training," he reminded , his tone deliberately patient, "and the lessons to help you control your healing powers."
Oh. That.
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