{CAROLINE}
Vladimir did not answer immediately.
Instead, he spoke with a slow calm. "Did I not warn you," he said, "that if you were caught causing trouble one more time, you would be expelled?"
Valerius laughed, a short, careless sound. "You and I both know that won't happen." Then his smile sharpened, turning cruel. "So tell me—what makes her so precious that you would intervene personally?"
His red eyes narrowed. "Don't you realize that because of this, Morgana and the others will never leave her alone? They're jealous. Or perhaps…" He tilted his head. "They sense what she is to you."
My brows furrowed.
What am I to him?
I looked up at Vladimir once more.
His face remained cold—perfectly sculpted, immovable—but there was something terrifying in the tension of his jaw, in the way the air around him vibrated ever so slightly.
I could not feel his anger directly, yet it pressed against me like an unseen force.
Then he looked down.
