"Will it?" Lori lifted her head, her eyes red-rimmed. "Because right now, it feels like my life is over. Like everything I worked for—my reputation, my privacy, my future—is gone."
Iva squeezed her shoulders.
"Your future isn't gone," she said firmly. "It's just changed. And change is scary. But you're not alone, Lori. You have Attia. You have me. You have Caleb. We're all here for you."
Lori's eyes filled with tears.
"I don't know how you do it," she whispered. "How you handle all the attention, all the pressure. You make it look so easy."
Iva laughed softly.
"Trust me," she said. "It's not easy. I'm just good at pretending."
They sat together in silence, the weight of the world pressing down on them both.
---
The news of the mating spread beyond the Academy.
Within days, the go
