Chapter 30: A Crushing Victory
Travers's words grew uglier by the second, deliberately twisting facts, dismissing Regulus's ability as "backstreet tricks and luck."
Regulus stood still, head slightly bowed. He knew what Travers was after — goad him into attacking first.
So long as Regulus threw the first spell, Travers — a fifth-year "forced to defend himself" — would hold the moral high ground regardless of the outcome.
And Travers was confident that if he focused and fought seriously, he would never be humiliated the way he had been on opening night.
The murmuring died down. Every eye settled on Regulus, waiting for his reaction.
Regulus stood there, absorbing the venomous words, feeling the cold irritation seeded by Bella's letter ferment and warm inside his chest.
He looked at Alger Travers's face — painted with calculation and malice — and found it equal parts laughable and tiresome.
'Why are there always people who can't read a room?'
Slowly, he tugged the corner of his mouth into a smile — cold, sharp, almost blade-edged.