Killian's POV
Rage clawed at my chest as I trudged across the snow-blanketed campus. The wind sliced through my coat, but the cold was nothing next to the fury eating me alive from the inside.
I'd lost her. Again.
Lyra Cooper had disappeared from the library while I was dealing with Kenji's screwup. When I finally realized she was gone, the whole place felt like a tomb. I'd searched every damn corner, swearing under my breath as I came up empty.
The snow kept falling around me in heavy silence, like it was laughing at my failure. Every flake that hit my jacket seemed to mock the same truth I couldn't stomach. I sucked at being a knight.
This bitterness wasn't new. It had been eating at me since the day the queen stuck me with protecting Lyra Cooper. Of all the people who could've earned a knight, why her? Why the girl who'd managed to blow up everything I thought I knew about my own life?
