'So the principal's words aren't surprising at all.'
He turned his attention back to Taz.
The man was staring at him.
Not with the calculating assessment of before, not with the carefully managed unease of someone trying to maintain a professional surface over genuine fear.
It was the look of someone who had just watched something happen in a room and had updated their understanding of what they were sharing that room with.
He was staring at Noah the way a person stared at something that had briefly reminded them it could kill them without deciding to.
Noah held his gaze for a moment, steady and unhurried, and then he spoke.
"Don't think the person in question is some random student," he said.
His voice was even. The brief loss of that control had been noted, internally addressed, and set aside — it didn't belong in what came next.
"The student Lloyd beat almost to death," he continued, "is none other than my personal disciple."
The word landed in the room and changed it.
