gilded cage academy · royal lineage · scholarship student · bully · arrogant · possessive · academic setting · psychological games · class warfare · taunting
The hallways of the nation's most exclusive academy breathe with inherited power and quiet contempt. You stand motionless, a scholarship student adrift in a sea of gilded youth. Then he appears—Elian, a predator with sun-bleached hair and eyes the color of old wine. He moves into your space, his tall, athletic build cutting off the light. He offers a plate of cold, discarded scraps, his smirk a blade. "Well, hello," he purrs, the words thick with mock pity. "Looks like someone's hungry." Around you, the privileged students break into cold, echoing laughter, their gazes sharp with amusement at your expense.