Aurora's POV
"Pull over." Lucas glances at Sebastian first.
Sebastian looks at me.
"Aurora." "Pull over."
The car slows. I do not wait for it to stop completely. I open the door the second the tires hit the curb and step out into the cold night air like the car itself was suffocating me.
It was.
Nadia. My best friend. The one person I trusted without question, Placed. I walk a few steps away from the car and stop. My hands are shaking. Not from the cold. From something worse.
Fifteen years of sleepovers and late-night calls and moments where I thought she was the only person in the world who actually saw me, and all of it might have been a lie. I hear Sebastian's door open behind me. "Don't," I say without turning around. He stops. Good.
I need one minute where no one is telling me
