The night air bites at my skin as I bolt through the twisted corridors of the estate. The moment I slipped past the velvet-draped archway, unseen in the swell of wine and murmured secrets, I ran. No plan. No map. Just instinct—and the thundering knowledge that I had to get away.
Away from their eyes.
From Leo’s, that burned with a feral hunger he didn’t try to hide.
From Marcus’s, that shimmered with fire and heartbreak, every glance a promise and a warning.
My bare feet slap against cold stone, silk dress snagging at my thighs as I climb a narrow stairwell that spirals like a serpent. Shadows lurch and dance along the curved walls, torchlight stretching and warping, as if even the architecture whispers that I don’t belong.
My heart races, pounding like a drumbeat to a song I’ve never
