Night had settled over the academy with a strange stillness, the kind that wrapped the buildings in cool air and long shadows. Most students were asleep. Only the dim golden emergency lights illuminated the wide hallways outside Ahce's dormitory.
She had just finished sorting through her notes, the divine cub curled beside her bed with its tails wrapped around itself like a fluffy cocoon, when a soft knock echoed through her room.
Not a polite knock. Not a hesitant one. But a knock with command, quiet, firm, intentional.
Ahce froze.
Three days had passed since her meeting with Lady Yin. Three days of silence from Eros. Three days where she convinced herself he was too busy to bother with her, that perhaps the responsibility of the engagement was plenty for him to process.
But the knock… Only one person in the empire carried that kind of pressure in a single knock. She stood slowly, brushing her uniform lightly, then cracked open the door.
