Sindy
The night felt like something pulled from the pages of a dream—or a nightmare I couldn’t quite wake from.
The fire at the center of the clearing was immense, wild, and alive. Its flames licked the heavens, tongues of orange and crimson reaching higher with every snap and crackle. Heat rolled across the night air in heavy waves, even from where I stood, tucked beneath the furs Lorenzo had wrapped around me. The smoke curled upward like pale ribbons of silk, scattering into the silver glow of the moon, which hung enormous and watchful above us.
It was beautiful. Terrifying.
I pulled the fur tighter around my naked body, even as shame and awareness burned hotter than the flames. Lorenzo had insisted—if I was to witness this, I must do it as one of them. Unclothed. Stripped bare of e
