I sat stiffly in the back row of the shield class, my hoodie pulled low over my forehead. Every muscle in my body buzzed with leftover tension from sparring earlier.

I hadn’t been able to meet Cassian’s eyes after the match. Not after the way I’d almost—almost—let my control slip.

It was crazy how things were gradually spiralling out of my control. When I first came to this school, the plan was to lay low.

But fate decided to play a cruel joke by making the school’s golden boy my ...