The next time I woke up, it wasn’t to silence. It was to music.Soft, haunting, classical—something that sounded like it should be playing in the background of a haunted ballroom. My eyelids fluttered open, heavy, unwilling. The cuff still bit into my wrist, and my throat felt like it had been rubbed raw with sandpaper.The lights were low again, just a dull amber glow bleeding from a standing lamp in the corner. Damian sat in a chair across the room, legs stretched out in front of him, a glass of dark liquor in his hand. He looked… different.Less fury. More fatigue.“What—what time is it?” I croaked.He didn’t answer right away. Just swirled the glass in his hand like it held answers. “Late,” he muttered eventually. “Or early. Depends how you look at it.”I watched him, eyes narrowed. “You’re still here.”“I’m not in the habit of leaving unstable nuclear weapons unattended,” he said coldly, but it lacked the venom he usually laced his words with.I tried to sit up straighter, the cu
Last Updated : 2025-05-21 Read more