Chapter 84

• Zarek’s POV
• The cafeteria was a hive, buzzing and restless. Forks scraped trays, voices overlapped, laughter cracked sharp across the tables like breaking glass. Normally, I liked the noise—it made it easy to ignore everything else. But today, Zara sat across from me, and she had that look again.
• Her tray was barely touched. She dragged the tines of her fork over a slab of chicken as if carving it into lines might solve her problems. Her eyes, though—stormy, restless—were glued on me.