The first thing I felt was heat.Not her body against mine, though memory still clung to me like smoke—her scent in the sheets, the phantom weight of her head against my chest. Not her pulse, which had carried me through the night, steady and taunting, a rhythm I counted until the hours bled thin. This was different—brighter, crueler. It gnawed at the edge of my hand where it had strayed past the curtain.I hissed and snatched back my fingers. Skin blackened and split, the smell of it sharp as iron and seared flesh. Sunlight: a predator older than me, pouring through the seam like molten glass.Too late. I had lingered too long. The night had abandoned me, and now I crouched in a room made dangerous by the very thing she worshipped with her waking.I crouched at the edge of her bed, watching the seam of the curtain burn faint gold, and considered the mathematics of leaving. How far could I make it before fire took me? Could I vault roof to roof fast enough to find shadow? Could I craw
Last Updated : 2026-01-04 Read more