Evaline:
If Rowan hadn't pointed it out, I would have missed him completely.
The dining hall was chaos... as it always was during breakfast hours. Students packed shoulder to shoulder, voices overlapping, cutlery clinking, the smell of freshly baked bread and hot meals filling the air. Everyone was trying to eat before rushing off to their morning classes, and the noise alone was enough to make my head throb.
I scanned the hall once. Then twice.
Nothing.
My eyes finally followed Rowan's subtle gesture toward the farthest corner at the very back of the hall.
"There," he murmured. "Found him."
And there he was.
Charles sat at the most secluded table possible, tucked so far away that it almost blended into the shadows cast by the tall stone pillars. His shoulders were slightly hunched, his head lowered, as if he hoped the world would simply forget he existed.
I knew exactly why he chose that spot.
He didn't want to be seen.
