Seb watched as she opened up a folder and selected a few papers to hand across the desk.

The man leaned forward and, in the blink of an eye, smacked the papers out of Via’s hand with a full swing of his arm. Via gasped and jumped backward, cradling her hand against her stomach.

“Hey!” Principal Grim and Sebastian yelled at the same time.

“It’s okay!” Via shouted.

“Out.” Sebastian’s voice was deadly low, on a register that was only ever used for fighting. Lithe as a cat, he’d inserted himself between the desk and Mr. Tate and that put him pretty close to nose-to-nose with this guy.

Seb’s adrenaline pumped through his veins, making everything stand out in high definition. The bead of sweat on Mr. Tate’s brow, the chip on one of the teeth he was currently baring, the spiraling, rainbow glitter of the crystals catching the light in the window of Via’s office.

“Out. Now.”

“Fuck this,” Tate growled as he stalked to the doorway, Sebastian not more than two inches behind him.

Principal Grim was there too, the ballsy little lady. She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled to the security guard who was running down the hall, belatedly on the way to see what all the ruckus was. The guard radioed for some assistance, and it wasn’t more than three minutes before Mr. Tate was escorted out of the building with three guards and Principal Grim. Sebastian didn’t follow.

The lunch bell rang; they’d need him in the cafeteria, wading through an ocean of tiny people, opening juice boxes and settling swapped sandwich disputes. But he didn’t go. Instead he turned back into Via’s office and quietly shut the door behind him.

“It’s okay,” she repeated. She was standing with her back against the far wall of the office with one hand cradled in the other.

“It sure as hell is not okay,” Seb said, a little more forcefully than he might have liked. He closed the distance between them in two long strides, dragging her desk chair along behind him. She lowered herself into it steadily, taking a long breath in and then out.

“Look at you,” he muttered, resisting the urge to brush the hair out of her face. “Your color’s all high. Your eyes are blown out.”

She looked like she’d just gotten off a roller coaster. But in a bad way.

“Let me see.” He reached for her hand and she let him take it. She used the other hand to tug at the neckline of her shirt. Sweat was turning the hair at her temples an even darker brown. Seb reached over and lifted the small window with one hand, and she let out a little choked sound as the cool air washed over her.

He bent over her hand, kneeling beside her. Dang, she was so small. If he’d laid her little golden hand on top of his, her fingers wouldn’t even have made it to his second knuckles. She wore no rings or polish, just clean fingernails.