The color in her face didn't change, her expression frozen like ice.
Kiara didn't even blink.
But she was still.
Too still.
Her gaze studied his face, searching for a bluff, a crack, anything.
But Lor didn't break, his hazel eyes steady, unyielding.
Then slowly, calmly, he reached into his pocket.
Pulled something out.
And placed it on the table between them.
A small, gleaming crystal—black as night, with fine violet veins running through it.
It pulsed faintly, like a dying heartbeat.
The kind of artifact that should've never existed within Academy walls, its dark energy humming subtly, sending a chill up Kiara's spine.
Kiara's eyes widened before she could stop herself, her breath catching, her thighs tensing under the table as a flush of panic mixed with the heat still lingering from their earlier tension.
Her hand twitched.
Reflex, reaching for it instinctively.
