RYKER’S POV
The low hum of the fluorescent lights in Callista’s private lab felt like a slow, teasing song, a melody that matched the rhythm of my anticipation. I sat in the plush chair tucked into the corner of the room, the stark white walls around me a sharp contrast to the thoughts swimming in my head. Thoughts that were anything but pure.
The chair creaked slightly as I shifted, my elbow resting on the armrest, my thumb brushing my lower lip. I was lost, drowning in images of Selenea. Not of her as she was in life—proud and stubborn—but of her absence, her missing body. She’d been a problem, a loose thread in the tapestry of my ambition, but now? Now, she was the key.
Selenea’s body mysterious disappearance gave me the perfect excuse to be here tonight, waiting for Dr. Callista. Th
