Valen moved through the academy's winding corridors, feeling the weight of eyes following him. Every step felt laden with caution, a strange prickle of awareness sharpening his senses. Since the last clash with the Black Vow's agents, he'd noticed them everywhere—fellow students, professors, even academy staff members watching him with fleeting glances, their gazes holding a faint but undeniable suspicion. Each look lingered too long, each gesture too carefully neutral.
They're watching me from every corner, he thought, his fists clenching as he forced himself to keep moving, to keep his composure. The mark on his wrist pulsed faintly in response, as though sensing his rising tension and feeding off it. He could almost feel it whispering to him, urging him to give in, to use its power, to crush the ones standing in his way.
