EMMALINE
I don’t even have to force my steps forward. My body carries me as if pulled by a string, though my mind screams for me to look away, to pretend I don’t see him, to fall back into the old routine we usually keep during these ceremonies. Normally, it’s easy, avoidance has always been our silent agreement. We keep our distance, eyes never lingering, words never exchanged, a fragile boundary that allows us to coexist in the same space without breaking into flames.
But tonight is different.
His gaze keeps finding mine.
It happens once, and I tell myself it’s nothing. Just a flicker of coincidence. But then it happens again. And again. Until the fire in his eyes has burrowed into my skin so deep that every nerve feels lit from within. It’s unbearable, the heat of it, like a secret
