The wind was brutal on the rooftop.
December in the city always had that unkind bite — the kind that clawed through leather jackets and scraped right down to bone. But right now, the cold wasn’t what made me shiver.
It was him.
Adrian stood a few steps behind me, the city lights behind him turning his silhouette into something mythic — shadow and sharpness, a man holding too many secrets in hands too steady for the chaos inside him.
I swallowed hard, clenching the mask tighter in my palm.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said quietly.
I didn’t turn. “Funny. That’s what I told myself about you.”
A beat of silence.
Heavy. Loaded. Not empty.
Then he walked closer — I felt his presence like a force, warm despite the freezing air. My breath fogged in front of me, and all I could think of wa
