"Don't worry.My father will know about this for sure."
Silence.
For the first time, a flicker of something unreadable passed through Galen's eyes.
Because Damien had played a card that couldn't be ignored.
The Elford name.
And while Damien himself had always been seen as a failure, his father was anything but.
A tense silence stretched between them, thick with the weight of Damien's words.
He exhaled slowly, shifting his bruised jaw as if testing how much pain he could endure. The coppery taste of blood still lingered in his mouth, and his nose throbbed with every heartbeat, but his expression never wavered.
His voice, when he finally spoke again, was quiet—measured—but carried the unmistakable weight of a threat.
"I'll make sure my father is aware," he murmured, his smirk fading into something far more dangerous. "That his son was attacked. In front of everyone. At this academy."
Galen's jaw tightened slightly, but he remained silent.
