BOOK 3: Chapter 54: The Edge of Madness
They lay side by side, slick with sweat and breathless, limbs tangled in a fevered knot of exhaustion and something far more dangerous. The air around them feels charged—thick with the echo of what just happened, the kind of silence that doesn’t soothe but trembles like the moment after lightning. Her chest rises and falls rapidly, each inhale a fight, each exhale a staggered gasp for clarity that won’t come.
She presses her back into the coolness of the sheets, eyes wide and unfocused on the ceiling, trying to make sense of the chaos still ringing inside her. Her skin is tingling, nerves alight, and her pulse thuds in places it shouldn't.
“Oh my God,” she whispers, voice rough with disbelief. “What... was that?”
She turns slowly to her side, her
