The café door closed behind them and the evening air came in around them immediately.
Cooler than it had been even an hour ago, the city settling into that particular quality of late afternoon that preceded dusk without quite being it yet.
They walked side by side back toward the academy, the conversation continuing in the easy, unhurried way it had inside over coffee.
Morgan walked with her hands loosely at her sides, her posture as composed outside as it was in any formal setting — not stiff, just naturally upright, the bearing of someone who didn't have a casual version.
Azael was mid-sentence when he saw her.
Not dramatically. His eyes simply moved across the path ahead as they approached the academy gates, taking in the usual flow of students moving in and out of the grounds.
And then stopped on a figure walking some distance ahead of them along the main interior path.
