The smoke scalds my lungs, burns my eyes.
“STEFANO!”
Lorenzo?Fuck, why doesn’t this motherfucker ever listen?
“STEFANO!”
“Lo, find RAYA!Get her out of here!”
Goddammit, my eyes.I blindly stagger forward, until pain rips through my shin as my knee connects with a hard object.Fucking fuck.“RAYA!”
Arms wrap around me and then I’m jerked backward.Pressure hits behind my right knee to weaken it, followed by a forceful weight against my shoulders, pulling me down.
I don’t fight it.Just let it happen.Because even blinded, my body recognizes hers.“Raya...”
Her arm tightens around my neck, gentle but firm.And then her voice, calm and dispassionate, is at my ear.“Didn’t I tell you…I don’t need saving?”
Judging from the muted muffle of her words, she’s wearing a mask.Good, she’s protected.
“Raya, don’t leave.”I’m ashamed of how my voice cracks.“I don’t care if you’re behind all of this.Please.Stay.”
“We both knew we were on borrowed time, Stefano.”With skill and precision, she applies pressure to both major arteries.Darkness rushes in, fast and heavy.“We could never be anything more.”
I try to speak, to ask… “Who…are…you?”
A beat.
“Soraya.”The word is a distant echo.“My name is Soraya.”
And as the world collapses into black, her final words follow me down, “Goodbye, my king.”
PART TWO
The Other Side by Ruelle
CHAPTER THIRTY–EIGHT
Stefano
FIVE MONTHS LATER
THREE MONTHS BEFORERAYAMichel conned her way into our lives, I started having a recurring dream.A black sheep with glowing green eyes wandered into my villa and charmed everyone.Became their villa pet.Their mascot.
Then, when their guard was down, it bared the teeth of a wolf and tore their throats out.One by one.
When it was done with them, it turned and leapt at me, morphing into a wolf mid-air.Slammed me to the ground, punched its claws into my chest, ripped my heart out…and ate it.
What made that particular recurring dream unusual was that the ending would be different sometimes—which never happened before.My dreams werealwaysconsistent, clear, unchanging, right up until they became reality.
But this one?Sometimes, instead of killing me, the wolf would whimper, slobber wet licks all over my face, then stretch out on top of me and sleep.Like I was its owner.
When I ran into Raya in the gym a few months later, I knew right away.Knew she was the sheep-wolf.And when the dreams suddenly stopped after meeting her, it couldn’t have been clearer.
I knew what needed to be done—kill herbefore she could ruin us.
But I kept delaying for some reason, and ultimately manipulated Lorenzo into triggering the Halo pact, which effectively gave me an excuse to do nothing.Because in the back of my mind was that other version of the dream…
What did it mean?I wasdeeplycurious.And when you’re bored with life, taking the riskier path is always a good way to spice things up.So I watched.Waited.Kept her close.
