ALEX
I barely remembered the drive back. The pulse in my ears was too loud, drowning out everything except the persistent echo of Percy’s voice beside me, soft and coiled with satisfaction. She had gotten what she wanted. She always did.
She sat too close in the back seat, her thigh grazing mine with pointed intention. Her guards followed behind us in a separate car, but even their distance didn’t make me feel safe. The air around her was colder than I remembered, sharper too—like a blade dipped in perfume.
“You really thought you could keep something like that from me?” she murmured, lips barely moving.
I stared straight ahead.
“You knew I’d come looking.”
“You weren’t supposed to find anything.”
She laughed—a soft, amused exhale that crawled beneath my skin.
“You’re slipping, Ale
