**Aria's POV**

The walk from the Great Hall to the Academy's guest quarters felt like the longest journey of my life. My father moved beside me with the steady confidence of someone who had just accomplished exactly what he'd intended, while I tried to process the reality that my carefully maintained deception had exploded in the most public way possible.

"You're quiet," he observed as we reached his temporary accommodations.

"I'm thinking."

"About?"

"About everything that just changed in ...