Riviera Hotel – 10:22 A.M.
The silence after Leona’s departure wasn’t silence at all. It was suffocating, a heaviness that pressed into Selene’s bones, thick with the memory of fire and ash. Smoke curled lazily above the blackened chandelier, threading into the pale morning light like dying ghosts that refused to leave.
Selene shifted in Cassien’s arms, her skin prickling where his blistered hands held her. He was hurt, scorched to the marrow, yet his grip never loosened. The only thing keeping her tethered was that steadiness when everything else had burned to ruin.
But even as she clung to him, her insides writhed with the knowledge Leona had left behind.
Others.
Not just Leona. Not just Cassien. A legion.
And they would feel her. They would come.
Her veins still glowed faintly, a
