Alina

I couldn’t breathe.

The sheets were tangled around me like bindings, the smell of Atlas’s cologne still clinging to the air. My skin throbbed where his fingers had circled my wrist, as if his touch had branded me. Even the silence felt dangerous, like the walls themselves had witnessed what just happened and would whisper it back to Ares.

I pressed my hand to my lips, realizing too late that I was trembling. Why did his words shake me so much? Why did they feel too heavy, too ...