Katrina stepped up right behind Jessie, her posture rigid as she narrowed her eyes at the new arrival.

"What are you doing here at this hour?"

Killian just offered a lazy, confident smile, casually running a hand through his slightly messy dark hair.

"What? Is it a crime for a guy to drop by and check on his hardworking fiancée?"

Jessie gasped dramatically, a delighted giggle escaping her lips as she nudged Killian's arm.

"Oh my, aren't you the devoted romantic! I'll leave you two alone, then."

She shot Killian a playful wink and skipped past him, disappearing down the dim corridor.

Katrina, however, remained completely unamused. She looked over her shoulder toward the massive mahogany desk at the back of the room.

Cassandra met her gaze, giving a single, exhausted nod of dismissal.

Katrina turned her attention back to the boy blocking the doorway, her glare hardening.

"Don't be so full of yourself, Glimor," she warned coldly and marched past him without another word, grabbing the heavy double doors and pulling them shut behind her with a definitive click.

The moment the doors closed, Killian let out a long, dramatic sigh.

"She is scary," he muttered, shaking his head as he strolled further into the dimly lit office.

He casually dropped his weight into the plush leather chair directly across from Cassandra's desk, crossing his legs.

"Seriously, Cassandra, how do you even put up with her every single day?"

Cassandra didn't look up from her ledger. Her silver hair fell like a curtain over her shoulder as her quill scratched methodically against the parchment.

"Katrina is efficient, punctual, and entirely dedicated to her responsibilities," she replied, her tone perfectly flat. "Which already makes her far more tolerable than you."

Killian just chuckled, completely unfazed by the icy reprimand. He leaned his elbow on the armrest and rested his chin in his hand.

"Ouch. My heart bleeds. You know I just prefer to apply my unique talents in... less administrative ways."

Cassandra finally stopped writing. She set her quill down with deliberate precision, slowly raising her piercing grey eyes to meet his.

The sheer exhaustion of the midnight hour did nothing to dull the sharpness of her gaze.

"Why are you here, Killian?" she demanded, cutting straight to the point.

He flashed that perfectly practiced, disarming smile, leaning forward slightly as if they were sharing an intimate secret.

"Why else? Of course, I came to see my belo—"

Before the word could even fully form on his lips, the ambient temperature in the sprawling office violently plummeted.

A sudden, bone-chilling draft swept through the room, snuffing out the warmth of the desk lamp.

And a thick, blindingly white layer of frost instantly bloomed across the polished surface of the mahogany desk, creeping rapidly across the wood until it stopped mere millimeters from Killian's resting fingertips.

Cassandra didn't raise her voice, but her grey eyes glowed with a suffocating, lethal cold.

She leaned forward, resting her folded hands directly on the freezing wood.

"I dare you..." Cassandra whispered, her voice a terrifyingly calm, absolute zero promise.

"Finish the sentence."

Killian didn't flinch. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

He looked down at the jagged, blindingly white layer of frost creeping over the mahogany toward his fingers.

Then, he slowly lifted his gaze back to her face. Instead of retreating or showing even a flicker of intimidation, his perfectly practiced smile only widened into genuine, effortless amusement.

He casually pulled his hand back from the edge of the desk, resting it comfortably on his knee.

"Just relax," Killian said, his voice entirely devoid of the fear she usually inspired in others. He raised his hands in a mock gesture of surrender.

"I am here to only talk."

The frost stopped spreading, though the room remained bitterly cold.

Cassandra didn't drop her glare. Her silver hair caught the dim light as she remained perfectly still, a predator waiting for the exact right moment to strike.

"Talk quickly, then," she ordered. "I have a ledger to finish, and my patience is already gone."

Killian let out a soft breath, leaning back against the plush leather.

"I just don't understand why you insist on working yourself to the bone over trivial student council budgets. The Glimor and Raith families are already finalizing the territorial trade agreements, Cassandra. Your future is completely secured. You should be enjoying your youth, preparing for our life together, rather than playing administrator at midnight."

Cassandra's expression hardened into pure, glacial contempt.

She stood up from her high-backed chair.

"Listen to me very carefully," Cassandra stated, her voice dropping into a tone of absolute, chilling authority.

"Just because my father agreed to this political farce of an engagement does not mean you have any right over me, my time, or my actions."

She placed her hands flat on the desk, narrowing her grey eyes until they were nothing but sharp, icy slits.

"And remember your place," she added, enunciating every single word with lethal precision. "We are just engaged. Not married."

Killian just chuckled, seemingly completely unbothered by the hostility rolling off her in freezing waves.

He brushed an invisible speck of dust from his dark trousers, looking up at her with an infuriatingly confident, possessive smirk.

"A minor technicality," Killian countered smoothly, his dark eyes locking onto hers.

"It's only a matter of time. Though we will be married the moment we graduate. The ink on the territorial contracts is practically dry, Cassandra. Neither of our families will let this fall through."

Cassandra stood up straight, the crushing pressure of her aura abruptly pulling back, leaving behind only a hollow, freezing certainty.

She looked down at him as if he were nothing more than a poorly written piece of legislation.

"I don't think so," Cassandra replied flatly.

She picked up her quill, her dismissive gaze dropping back down to her ledger.

"If you think I am going to let Aldric Raith blindly sell me off to the highest bidder to cover his own political shortcomings, you are fundamentally mistaken," she stated without looking at him.

"Now, get out of my office. I have work to do."

Before her quill could even touch the parchment to resume her work, Killian let out a low, amused chuckle.

He leaned back in the plush leather chair, steepling his fingers together as a thoroughly satisfied smirk spread across his face.

"Oh, by the way..." Killian drawled, his voice taking on a casual, highly calculated lilt.

"I met your little brother over the break. And he seemed to be very... eager to show his teeth."

Cassandra's hand completely froze.

The tip of her quill hovered just a millimeter above the ledger. A single drop of black ink gathered at the nib, hanging suspended for a second before dropping and heavily staining the crisp parchment.

She didn't immediately look up. The glacial temperature in the room seemed to suddenly stagnate, the heavy, suffocating silence stretching out for a long, tense moment.

Slowly, Cassandra raised her head. Her piercing grey eyes locked onto Killian, the dismissive annoyance from a moment ago entirely replaced by a sharp, dangerous focus.

"...What?"