~AMARIS
The icy dread that had locked down my joints thawed as a wave of desperate, frantic rationalisation swept through my mind. I blinked rapidly, the stinging neon pink and electric blue strobe lights of the pool deck cutting through the dark night and fracturing my vision. I forced myself to take a long, deep breath, anchoring my trembling feet to the concrete floorboards.
It wasn't Ember.
As the girl on the opposite deck turned her head to laugh with a group of male wolves, the suffocating illusion shattered entirely. The entire neutral zone pool venue was dimly lit, cast in a moody, violet haze that made every silhouette look like a potential threat. Combined with the crazy, frantic imaginations born from the endless trauma that had been happening in my life over the past few wee
