Chapter One: The Initiation

Mira Vale had spent six months preparing for this.

Six months of encrypted messages, fake identities, and sleepless nights chasing rumors of the Circle of Ecstasy, a secretive tantric sect that met once a year on a private estate two hours north of the city.

They promised transcendence through sex, absolute surrender, and total anonymity. The outside world called them a cult. Mira called them her Pulitzer.

She arrived at dusk on the first day of the seven ...