My face was burning like a wildfire. I was embarrassed to be having this conversation in front of the Dean, to stand here and have Seth talking to me like he was.

Like I was absolutely nothing to him. As if he was in the position to scold me. Embarrassed wasn’t the right word. Humiliated came to mind. Hurt did too.

It was like earlier, when I was frozen in the training room. Everything shut down for a long, stretched-out moment as a deep crack lit up my chest, sharp and unbelievably real.

I swallowed past the rapidly growing lump in my throat and saw Marcus. His attention was turned to the window, and it hit me once more that we had an audience for this.

Seth’s gaze shifted away from me, to the wall. I drew in another breath and it got stuck. There was nothing else for me to say right now. Nothing at all.

Squeezing my hands closed until my nails bit into my palms, I glanced at Marcus. “Sorry to, um, be a bother. The . . . the training situation is fine.”

Seth’s gaze flew back to mine, but I forced myself to turn around. I walked out of the room, each step stiff. I had to leave before I embarrassed myself further, because I was seconds from either screaming at Seth or crying, and those were two things I didn’t want to do in front of Marcus. Or anyone.

I put one foot in front of the other and kept walking—kept going until I was all the way downstairs and then outside, the whole time my head a whirl of questions and confusion. I blindly headed toward the dorm, because there was no way I was going back to training. Not today. No way. There was a horrible burning sensation in my eyes.

“Josie.”

My heart stuttered, along with my step.

“Josie!” Seth called out again, his voice closer. “Hold up.”

Part of me wanted to keep going, but I couldn’t. A tiny spark of hope flared to life. I turned around, stopping under the cluster of olive trees. “What?” I said when he drew near. “Did you follow me so you can scold me again?”

Seth slowed, stopping a few feet in front of me. “I didn’t scold you.”

“Bullshit,” I snapped, latching onto the anger, because that was better than the confusion and hurt. “You scolded me in front of Marcus. Told me not to embarrass myself. Except you were the one embarrassing me.”

His brows knitted. “Okay. I didn’t mean to do that—”

“It doesn’t matter if you meant to do that or not. You did it.” I took a deep breath as I stared up at him. “What is going on, Seth? Why aren’t you training me anymore?”

Crossing his arms over his chest, he didn’t answer for a moment. “Like I said earlier, it’s just better that way.”