Wedding Bells, Death Knells

clanked shut behi

n ye

lt alien on her skin,

her release papers a thin

not a shelter, no

ll, dusty in

s trembling sligh

scattering Redwood

sults swam be

ds of d

ched her lips. Eve

Nation

rm around her, the towering tre

" he'd whispered, his voice ful

rainy night, screeching tir

m's younger sister, d

n in the pa

ial, had needed a scapegoat to prote

g Liam, had becom

gnawed at he

echoed: "A few months, M

rr

the Redwoods. It was the o

ord was a dead e

r at "Nocturne," an exclus

rich, the powerf

e black uniform fel

ne hummed with conversat

the tables, a ghos

heard it.

nd that twisted somet

champagne flutes ba

m H

e, older, sharper, his tai

warm for her, w

flickered across his face, quickl

with sleek black hair

a "Jes

roommate. He

ess's hand rested poss

le widened, a predato

voice carrying across the h

friends," part of Liam and J

stares, hot a

o, they had al

driver.

trian – an aide to a political rival of his father, Senator

yed his family's image,

able force, even fr

ispering something. He nodde

d, a glass of red wine

hite tablecloth near Liam's tab

atically. "Oh, d

through the murmu

is gaze fixed on

d, the tray hea

embers looked

Liam co

smi

She needed this job.

down h

ed to th

over. "Mr. Hayes,

is eyes burning in

. He wanted her to suffer, just

kn

et was cold be

pkin, her movement

e. The eyes of

contempt. He saw her desperation,

re proof of her guilt,

he stain, her

fought against the cru

n the fall f

was

hestrated by the man she stil

ep, accusing red

cleaning, her

owly, her b

unreadable now, a flicker of some

ched, tr

walked away, the whispers

each moment an exerci

ess, their laughter a count

sual touches, th

fresh sta

ds, of her ashes scattered

nly thing th