Page 54 of Veil of Secrets

Her hand brushes mine.

The contact is quick. Intentional.

“Okay,” she says.

I tilt my head. “Just like that?”

“No.” Her voice lowers. “But I’m tired of pretending I’m not already in it.”

“In what?”

“This.”

She lifts her mask and meets my eyes, bare again.

“This game wasn’t a game,” she says. “It was the start of something we don’t have a name for yet.”

I reach up, push her hair behind her ear.

“But you’re in it.”

“So are you.”

We stand like that another second.

Then I gesture to the door.

“We can’t stay long.”

She nods.

Takes one last look at the body.

Then slips the mask into her pocket.

We walk out together.

This wasn’t just a game.

This was a line crossed.

One I don’t plan on stepping back from.

And neither does she.

Chapter 9 – Elara

Some nights, quiet feels earned.

This isn’t one of them.

I lean against the rooftop rail, letting the cold chew at my forearms. I didn’t bother with a jacket—my skin’s still hot from earlier. Still too aware. Still remembering his mouth, his hand, the press of my body against his.

But that isn’t why I’m up here.

I’m up here because downstairs there’s a body cooling under crates and a game still hanging in the air like unfinished breath.

I’m up here because I don’t know how to sleep anymore.

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