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Chapter 69: The greenhouse Confession

last update Last Updated: 2025-07-06 08:11:33

The icy terror Ethan had injected into the library clung to me like frostbite. His accusations about Julian, toxic, insidious, echoed through the cavernous silence, fighting with the lingering ghostly heat of his touch on my skin, the desperate hunger he'd stirred up low in my belly. I couldn't breathe in that room with him, with his accusations hanging in the air like toxic mist. I needed air, even if the air outside was a frozen nightmare.

Blindly, I pushed through a door of solid oak concealed off the kitchens, a part of the house I rarely entered. The blast of heat that hit me was staggering, a tangible wall after the house's growing chill. Heat wrapped around me like a lover's arms, thick and sudden. I stumbled forward, panting, the change from icy fear to tropical suffusion leaving me momentarily dizzy.

The air tasted rich and primal, wet soil, decaying leaves, and the heady, cloying sweetness of jasmine and orchids. It was thick enough to drink, coating my tongue, filling my lu
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