The sky had deepened to a burning orange bruise when the last remnants of light pulled away from the shattered rooftop. Shadows stretched long across the wreckage as Alex knelt, chest heaving, hands raw and painted with a mixture of drywall dust, blood, and fury. The silence around him wasn’t peaceful—it was the kind of silence that comes after a scream, a silence that waits with bated breath for what happens next.
His pulse thundered in his ears. Every beat was a hammer to his skull. Every breath tasted like ash.
And her scent was gone.
That was the part that broke him hardest.
Rose always lingered in the space around her—like wildflowers and flame, like rain on hot pavement, like something real. Even when she’d leave the room, the air would still hum with her. But not now.
Now, it w
