Lila
I slipped from my room before dawn fully broke, hoping for just a few minutes of stillness in the bathhouse before the chaos of the finalist announcement began.
Steam hung in the air like a second skin, curling along the vaulted ceiling and clinging to my hair. The scent of lavender and eucalyptus wrapped around me, warm and heady. For once, I wasn’t thinking about rankings or whispered alliances or who might be watching.
I stepped out of my robe and folded it neatly on the edge of the stone bench. My hands trembled a little, not from fear—just exhaustion. Everything lately had been a lot to take in. The trials. The lies. The way Damon’s eyes burned through me one day and avoided me the next.
The mark he left on my skin—quiet proof of something I didn’t fully understand.
I s
