Cassidy Valentine was experiencing something deeply unsettling.
She was paying attention.
Not fake paying attention, where you nod along and think about literally anything else. Not spite-paying attention, where you memorize random facts just to prove a point. This was genuine, honest-to-god engagement with educational material.
What the hell is happening to me?
The history textbook lay open across her lap, pages spread to a chapter about the Reign of Terror. Isaiah sat in the armchair across from her, his voice low and steady as he explained how Robespierre went from revolutionary hero to paranoid dictator in the span of a few years.
"So basically," Cassidy interrupted, "the guy who started the revolution became the thing he was fighting against?"
"Pretty much. Power corrupts."
"That's depressing."
"That's history."
She should have been bored. She should have been playing on her Switch. She should have been anywhere else, doing anything else, with anyone else.
