The attention was like a physical weight.
One of the bullies, the one who seemed to be the ringleader with a smug, entitled tilt to his chin, grinned.
It wasn't a friendly expression.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" he drawled, his voice dripping with false curiosity.
This was horrible. Exactly the scenario I'd wanted to avoid.
My plan of being an invisible, uninteresting passerby had spectacularly failed.
I paused, my forward momentum halting.
I looked at them, keeping my face a carefully constructed mask of neutrality.
It's not like I was scared or anything. Maybe I would have been if it was at my first day in the academy. But now?
After what I'd been through? All the training, fighting, claiming, killing, and almost dying.
These were just children playing at being tough.
No, the emotion curdling in my gut was pure, unadulterated annoyance.
