Blood seeped along the sharp blade, alarmingly bright red. Samuel quickly raised his hand and called out, "Chloe, calm down. Can we talk about this outside?" He worried Eliana would be furious if she came back and saw this. Whatever he had to do to handle Chloe, he needed to get her out of there first.

Chloe was being insistent. "No!" she said. "Promise me I can stay, then I'll go with you."

"Fine," Samuel replied, "you wanted to work near me? You can join the admin ...