"You'll sit with Alfred in the lab from now on," I said, my voice coming out harsher than I meant it to. When she walked away from me in the hallway earlier, something felt off about her. Bad vibes. Something was going to happen, and it wasn't going to be an accident.
Her chin lifted in that familiar gesture of defiance "I don't need you to tell me what's right for me."
She tried to pull away, but I couldn't let her go. I wasn't done.
Instead, I pulled her closer without thinking, with effortless strength. The movement brought her mere inches from my face.
Her heart was pounding, I could hear every beat, could smell that rush of adrenaline pumping through her. There was something in her eyes, something that made me want things I shouldn't. She had this weird effect on me, made me actually feel something, which almost never happened. I didn't give a damn about humans, let alone being drawn to one. Not since the day she walked into my classroom looking like a confused kid.
I stared into her beautiful eyes, eyes that saw me as nothing more than her infuriating professor, while my hand sent healing energy through her skin.
If she knew that the man she was challenging so fearlessly was dangerous.
If she knew that her scent drove me crazy, that her defiance made something wild wake up inside me.
The knock at my door broke the spell.
She stepped back quickly, and the loss of her warmth hit me like a physical blow. My hand fell to my side, suddenly empty and cold.
⸻
I watched her close the door behind her as she left
"How did you know I was planning revenge?" Austin's voice cut through my distraction. He approached my desk with careful steps, trying to mask the fear that flickered across his features.
My attention remained split between the ghost of Selene's presence and the young man standing before me. He waited, shoulders tense, for my response.
"It's written all over your face," I said, finally meeting his eyes.
"What?" The word came out strangled, disbelief coloring his tone.
Austin shifted his weight, realizing I wasn't going to elaborate. The silence stretched until he cleared his throat and pressed on.
"Thank you, sir. For the advice, and uhm… everything." His voice carried genuine gratitude. "I don't know what I would have done if..." He stopped talking, but we both knew where that was going. The kid would've done something stupid to whoever pissed him off.
Strange how easy that was. All those angry thoughts he had just disappeared. I barely did anything, just talked to him a bit and maybe made him forget a little of the offense. Just a little.
"If there's anything I can help you with," he continued, "I know the campus layout well. Which buildings have the best study spaces, where students tend to gather between classes, maybe even... administrative things? Filing systems, campus protocols?" He was grasping, clearly intimidated but trying to prove his worth.
I leaned back in my chair, considering. "Actually, there is one thing."
"Yes, sir. Anything." The words came out quickly, almost desperately.
"I need you to keep an eye on Selene." The words felt heavier than they should have. "Who she spends time with, where she goes, and make sure she's studying with Alfred"
Austin's eyes widened. "Why? I mean..." He swallowed hard. "If Selene finds out, I'm dead. She's got a reputation for holding grudges."
"Then don't let her find out." I stood, reaching for my suit jacket draped over the chair back. The fabric was expensive, Italian wool that moved like liquid shadow. "Consider it practice in discretion."
Austin watched me with the expression of someone who'd just agreed to defuse a bomb. I clapped him on the shoulder, and he barely managed not to flinch.
"Let's go."
I moved toward the door, but his confused voice stopped me. "Where are we going?"
"We?" I paused, one hand on the doorframe. "You go your way, I go mine." The lock clicked as I secured my office. "And Austin? Don't forget our little arrangement."
He stood there for a moment, before quickly bowing his head. The poor boy looked like he wanted to ask a dozen questions but didn't dare. I smiled broadly at him, my eyes closing, clearly fake.
The parking garage was dimly lit, filled with the usual symphony of campus life, distant laughter, car engines, the scrape of skateboard wheels on concrete. I was halfway to my car when the temperature dropped ten degrees in an instant. My breath misted in the suddenly frigid air, and I didn't need to turn around to know who had arrived.
"Long time no see, brother."
Damien's voice carried the same smooth cadence I remembered, though something darker threaded through it now. Damien had been my protégé in the infernal hierarchy, someone I'd taken under my wing and mentored through the darker arts of corruption. I'd taught him everything: how to read human weakness, how to whisper doubt into willing ears, how to harvest despair. We'd worked side by side for centuries, until my punishment came and he ascended to take my place as Soul Broker.
I turned slowly, unsurprised to find him materializing from the shadows between two parked cars. He looked exactly as he had the day I'd been cast down, tall, sharp-featured, with eyes like polished obsidian. The only difference was the aura of authority that clung to him now, the mantle of power that had once been mine.
"Damien," I called back, keeping my voice steady. His arrival wasn't shocking, I'd been expecting this confrontation sooner or later. What surprised me was how long it had taken him to realize I'd been interfering with his work. For someone who'd once been so perceptive under my tutelage, he'd been remarkably slow to connect the dots. The thought gave me a small, bitter satisfaction.
He smiled, the expression cold as winter moonlight. "I see you've been trying so hard." He began to pace, one hand clasped behind his back, the other stroking his chin in a gesture I'd taught him centuries ago. "To interfere with my work."
"I have no business with you," I said. "Nor do I have anything against you."
"No?" His pacing stopped dead. "Then explain why you intercepted a young student before I could reach him. I caught the scent of despair, of perfect corruption, and by the time I arrived..." His voice dropped to a dangerous whisper, rage simmering beneath each word. "He was gone."
"People can change on their own, Damien. They don't always need—"
I didn't get to finish. One second he was standing five feet away, the next his hand was crushing my windpipe. My back slammed into the oak tree hard enough to shake the whole damn thing. Bark scattered everywhere, rough pieces scraping through my suit and into my skin.
I grabbed his wrist and punched him hard in the ribs. The sound was like breaking wood. I still had some fight left in me. My punishment hadn't stripped everything from me, not yet anyway.
The parking garage wasn't the place for this kind of confrontation, not with students and faculty wandering about.
With a burst of strength, I grabbed Damien by the shoulders and launched us both toward the woods that bordered campus. We crashed through bushes and low branches, leaves and twigs whipping at our faces as we rolled deeper into the shadows where no one would hear us tear each other apart.