Shirley
I didn’t sleep that night.
Not really.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw both of them—Dante with his thunderstorm eyes and rough hands, holding me like he both craved and hated me. Then Asher, whispering truths too dangerous to accept, watching me like I was glass he didn’t know how to hold without breaking.
The air in my room felt thick with unspoken things. Secrets. Betrayals. Pain that didn’t quite have a name.
I sat up just before dawn, the sheets tangled around my legs, sweat clinging to the back of my neck. My mark had burned faintly in my sleep, not from pain… but from something else. Something like awareness.
Of what, I didn’t know.
I got up, yanked on an old hoodie, and left the house barefoot. The town was still dark, the streets hushed. The cold concrete felt gro
