Chapter 19. No One Touches Her

The air around Aria didn't just feel hot anymore; it felt pressurized. Following the explosion in the lecture hall, she had been moved—not to a prison cell, but to a single-room “Stabilization Chamber” in the North Wing, a sterile, temporary space usually reserved for wolves recovering from severe shifts. It was less punishment and more containment, monitored constantly by the quiet hum of anti-magic wards built into the ceiling.

Her clothes were replaced with thin, breathable linen that felt like paper against her overheated skin. The fever had become her new normal: a low-grade, constant burn that made the simple act of sitting still feel like a form of physical labor.

She was permitted to attend the evening meal in the Beta cafeteria—a move Headmaster Thorne's report likely mandated to demonstrate that the anomaly was “under observation, not immediate threat.” This decision ensured two things: Aria was visible, and she was vulnerable.

The Beta cafeteri