LOGINMEGAN'S POVThe place is called Wonderland, which under normal circumstances I'd find either charming or aggressively on the nose, but right now I'm just grateful it exists.It's one of those sprawling indoor play centers that somehow manages to fit a ball pit, a climbing structure the size of a small building, three separate slide configurations, and what appears to be an entire dedicated section for foam blocks, all under one roof. One of those places designed to exhaust children so thoroughly that they fall asleep on the car ride home without argument.I planned this before I went to see Danielle this morning. Left the twins here with Gwen and two of my guards, told Gwen I'd be back within a couple of hours, and made sure they'd have enough activities to fill the time without noticing how long I'd been gone.And now, it hits me from the car park.The high-pitched, unrestrained joy that only exists in places specifically built for children who've been set loose with little supervis
MEGAN'S POV"He wasn't yours," I reply, my voice still even. "He never was.""He would've been," she snaps. "If you hadn't shown up, he would've eventually come back to me. I know he would have. But instead, you appeared out of nowhere with your little act of generosity, and suddenly everyone's talking about Megan Pierce like you hung the moon."I look at her, really look at her, and what I see isn't the bold, calculating Danielle I’d built into a threat in my head. It's a woman sadder and more pathetic than that. A woman who loved someone so completely without reciprocation that she eventually couldn't distinguish between love and ownership, between wanting someone and being owed them."I wish you'd never come back to Arkon," she continues, her voice dropping into a hiss now. "I wish you'd stayed wherever you were hiding with those children of yours and never come back. Everything was fine before you came back.""Was it?" I counter. "You call that fine? Because the fine you're descr
MEGAN'S POVHonestly, I didn't plan this visit.Or rather, I planned it the way you plan things at two in the morning when you can't sleep and your mind keeps circling back to the same woman, the same face, the same voice delivering confession after confession in a hospital room where you were too bruised and too shocked to say half of what you actually wanted to say.By the time morning came, I'd already decided.I left the twins with Gwen, told my guards where we were going, and got in the car before I could talk myself out of it.And now I'm here.The facility is exactly as grim as you'd expect, concrete and fluorescent lighting and the particular kind of silence that only exists in places where people are being kept rather than choosing to stay. One of the senior officers escorts me to a private visitation room without asking many questions, which tells me the name Megan Pierce is carrying a different kind of weight in this building.I instruct my guards to wait outside the door,
XARION'S POVI don't remember most of the drive home.I remember leaving the hotel parking lot. I remember the flowers still sitting on the passenger seat beside me, white peonies wilting slightly in the afternoon heat because Megan didn't want them. And I remember arriving in my own driveway and simply not having the energy to get out of my car.So I didn't.I sat there instead, engine off, hands still loosely curled around the steering wheel, and at some point my forehead found its way down to rest against the back of my hands, and I just stayed like that.I went to Megan's hotel to check up on her.That was the entire plan. Show up, bring something simple and sincere, remind her that I'm trying, that I'm different, that we both finally know the truth about everything that happened four years ago, and that I'm still not going anywhere.And instead I drove away with my chest cracked wide open and a bouquet of flowers she didn't want.I keep hearing her voice.‘Ever since you came bac
DANIELLE'S POVThe officer escorts me down a corridor I don't recognize, and I realize, with a fresh wave of dread, that they're taking me somewhere new.My new cell.I hate it before I even step inside.It's smaller than the holding room. Stained concrete walls, a thin mattress on a metal frame, a toilet in the corner with absolutely no privacy whatsoever, and the smell of bleach fighting a losing battle against a stench far worse under it.The officer shoves the door shut behind me, and the sound of the lock slamming into place sends a bone-deep and final shiver crawling down my spine.I sink onto the corner of the mattress and let the tears come again, because what else is there to do.I can't believe this is my life now.I can't believe loving Xarion, genuinely, completely loving him, has landed me here, in a concrete box, wearing an ugly jumpsuit, separated from everyone and everything I've ever known."Stupid," I whisper to myself, pressing my palms against my face. "Stupid, stu
DANIELLE'S POV"I told you."Skye drops a plastic tray of food onto the table between us and sits down across from me, her expression a careful mix of exasperation and something that might be pity, which is somehow worse."I warned you, Danielle," she continues, folding her arms. "I told you to be careful. I told you not to do anything reckless. And what did you do?"I stare at the tray instead of looking at her, because if I look at her right now I'm going to cry again, and I've already cried enough today to last several lifetimes."You don't have to remind me," I murmur, my voice scraped thin."I think I do," Skye replies, though her tone softens slightly. "Because clearly the lesson didn't land the first hundred times I said it."I press my palms against my eyes, my elbows on the table, the orange jumpsuit they made me wear scratching uncomfortably against my skin every time I move. I never thought I'd be wearing something like this. I never imagined a version of my life that invo
XARION'S POVPain.That's the first thing I register when I wake up.A dull, throbbing ache that seems to radiate through every part of my body. My head feels like it's been split open with an axe, my ribs are screaming, and my knuckles sting like hell.I groan, my eyes fluttering open, and immedia
XARION'S POVThe bar I end up at is a dive.And I mean that in every sense of the word.It's hidden away in the rougher side of Arkon, the kind of place where the neon sign glitches every few seconds and half the letters are burnt out. The windows are grimy, the paint on the door is peeling, and t
XARION'S POVDanielle pushes off the pillar and walks toward me, her heels clicking against the pavement with that familiar confident stride. Her expression is carefully neutral, but I can see the calculation behind her eyes.I instinctively tense, my posture stiffening as she closes the distance
VANCE'S POV"For what Maverick said earlier.” Megan says softly. “About… about their father. I know that probably made things awkward."I shake my head, squeezing her hand gently. "Don't apologize. They're kids. They're curious. It's natural.""Still," she murmurs, looking down. "I don't want you t







