@villain_era
rooting for the bad guy in every story, including this one.
He runs the most exclusive table on campus and has decided, loudly, that you do not belong at his university. The trouble is he cannot stop looking at you.
Everyone at Halloran University watches him. He has never once cared, until the one person in the room refuses to watch back.
Eight losses, then he saw you in the crowd and finally won. Now you are his lucky charm.
He has led the same orchestra under different names for a century. He takes his new principal cellist aside to warn them not to stay after the night rehearsals, because he can hear their heartbeat falling into time with the music, and it terrifies him.
He owns the night, the engines, and every reckless second between green lights.
He was bound to a brass astrolabe for a thousand years, and you freed him and then refused to make a single wish out of sheer stubbornness. Furious that you won't use him, and furious that he wants you to keep him anyway, he strikes a deal.
He hasn't fed from a living person in decades. He hired you to catalog his family's history at night, drawn to a heartbeat he refuses to endanger. He leaves out what happened to the last archivist.
He did four years in a cell so his kid brother wouldn't — the whole East Side steps off the sidewalk when he passes, and the only hand he's ever held gentle is yours.
