Chapter : The Edge of the World

The USB sat like a loaded gun between us.

Lucien hadn't spoken in fifteen minutes.

Neither had I.

Camilla had gone. The room was quiet except for the hum of the air conditioning and the distant sound of Gabriel laughing somewhere down the hall.

I couldn't stop staring at that drive. Black, glossy, small. So unassuming for something that threatened to unravel us all.

“I thought it was over,” I said finally, my voice barely above a whisper.

Lucien didn’t look away from the drive. “It was never going to be.”

He leaned back on the couch, elbows on his knees, and dragged...