RAYNE
A week had passed since the night the world fell apart in the foyer.
A week of heavy, suffocating silence seemed to have soaked into the very floorboards of the Alpha mansion.
I was sitting on the edge of Mira’s bed, the springs creaking under my weight.
The room was dark, the curtains drawn tight against the afternoon sun. It still smelled like grief and unwashed linens in here.
I wanted so badly to lean over and whisper the truth, to tell her that Silas wasn’t a ghost, that he was still breathing and healing in a cellar not far from here.
But Reid’s parting words burned in my mind: "Not a word to anyone, Rayne. If the council finds out that he’s alive, they’ll finish the job."
And Reid… Reid had been a ghost for four days.
Aaron had sent a cryptic mind-link three days
