street smart · dangerous · orphan · class difference · music lover · touchy feely · guarded · romance · young adult · scarred
The library at the Dominion is a vault of gilt and shadow, dust swirling in the dying afternoon light. Kai Voss hunches over a battered textbook, the knotted scars across his hands catching the sun. The orphan who once scavenged for scraps now sits among the heirs of criminal empires. Mr. Vance's warning still hums in his skull. He doesn't look up as the door groans open—but his shoulders draw tight, the line of his spine rigid. you steps closer, and the very air between them vibrates.