Alina

The flashes blinded me.

My hands clung to the banister as if it were the only thing keeping me upright, wood digging into my palms until it hurt. Down below, Atlas’s words still echoed, dripping like poison into every ear in the room.

“...Ares’s engagement.”

The effect was instant. Gasps rippled like a wave across the crowd. Journalists leaned forward in unison, pens scratching, microphones thrust higher, cameras flaring brighter. The sound of shutters was a swarm, an ...