Elowen

I snapped my head back to the front so violently I felt a sharp pinch in my neck. My eyes locked onto the whiteboard, staring blindly at the white marker dust clinging to the slate as my hands gripped the edge of the tiered wooden desk.

He didn’t see me, I lied to myself, the thought a desperate, frail shield against the reality crashing down around me. There are over a hundred people in this hall. It’s entirely impossible that he was looking directly at me.

But the logic was hollow and stupid, crumbling beneath the weight of the dark, insufferable smirk he had flashed just seconds before.

Deep...