The Silicone sanctuary

Samantha POV

The drone didn’t land.

It settled, like a dying moth finally surrendering to gravity.

The rotors wound down into a thin, metallic whine before silence swallowed everything. Not city silence—no distant sirens, no traffic hum—but something older. Heavier. The kind of quiet that pressed against the eardrums and waited to see what would dare breathe inside it.

Outside the reinforced glass, the forest of Fontainebleau loomed like a living wall of ink. No lights. No movement. Just ancient trees standing shoulder to shoulder, watching.

I stayed curled against Lucien’s chest for a heartbeat too long.

I was still wearing his shirt. Still buzzing from the way my body hadn’t quite remembered where it ended and he began. Still riding the aftershock of Paris, of fire and flight and the Reaper’s gaze burning through me like a checksum error I couldn’t resolve.

“We’re here,” Lucien murmured.

His voice vibrated through me—low, steady, anchoring.

“Fantastic,” I said, forcing myse