LOGINEPILOGUE- SEREIAOne year later, the cliffs of Santorini dropped straight into a sea so blue it looked unreal, and Valerian had bought out the entire stretch for the day — a private clifftop estate normally reserved for heads of state, white canopies lining a path carved into the rock, rose petals scattered the length of it.“You ready, child?” Gracie asked, gripping my hand like she was the one getting married.“I’ve been ready for a year.”She laughed, already crying. “Then go get him.”The quartet shifted into something slower, strings rising over the sound of waves below, and I walked.Valerian stood waiting at the end of the path, dark suit, no tie, his hair slightly windblown. He looked at me like the sea and the hundred guests behind us had simply ceased to exist.“You’re beautiful,” he said when I reached him.“You say that every time.”“Because it’s true every time.”The officiant’s words blurred past until I heard the part that mattered. “Do you, Valerian, take Sereia to be
VALERIANThree weeks had passed since the shooting.Three weeks of white walls and beeping machines and the particular smell of antiseptic that I’d started to taste in the back of my throat even when I wasn’t in the building anymore. Three weeks of sitting in the same plastic chair, holding the same hand, memorizing every line of the same still face. Three weeks of waiting for her eyes to open.I hadn’t left the hospital once.Gracie brought me food I mostly didn’t eat. Sarah brought clean clothes I changed into without really registering it. Liyana came every afternoon straight from school, climbing up beside the bed to take her mother’s hand in both of hers, voice gone soft and careful in a way no five-year-old should have to learn. “Mommy, wake up. I miss you.”But Sereia didn’t wake up.Today, Gracie finally put her foot down.“Valerian.” She planted herself in the doorway like she meant to physically block it. “You need to go home. A few hours. Shower. Sleep in an actual bed. E
VALERIANThe gunshot cracked through the cabin like something splitting in half, and I felt it before I understood it — my whole body going rigid even with my fist still buried in Lucas’s jaw.I looked up. Sereia was already falling. Selena stood over her, the gun still smoking in her hand, and for half a second the room just stopped — Marcus already surging toward Selena, Annabelle screaming somewhere on the floor with blood soaking through her sleeve — but none of it registered. There was only Sereia, dropping to her knees in slow motion that felt like it would never end.Blood was already spreading dark across her dress. Her eyes were open, but something in them had gone distant, unfocused, like she was looking at me from somewhere far away.“Sereia!”I shoved Lucas off me without thinking. He hit the floor and didn’t move again. I didn’t care. I was already across the room, dropping down beside her, my hands finding her shoulders.“Sereia. Look at me! Loom at me.”Her eyes found
SEREIAThe cabin sat dead quiet in the dark — too quiet, the kind of quiet that made every small sound feel like a threat.I stood just behind Valerian, my pulse hammering so hard I could hear it in my own ears, drowning out the wind moving through the trees. Lucas stood on the porch like he owned the night. He had Liyana’s rabbit dangling loose from one hand — her purple rabbit, the one she dragged everywhere, the one she couldn’t sleep without.“Where is she?” Valerian’s voice came out flat. Ice over something boiling underneath.Lucas only smiled. “Safe. For now.”Every cell in my body wanted to lunge at him, claw the smile right off his face. My legs wouldn’t move, fear had me rooted in place like roots had grown through my feet.“She’s inside,” Lucas went on, almost conversational. “Sleeping, finally she cried a good for a good while and she kept calling for you two.” His eyes slid to me. “Almost broke my heart, Sereia. Almost.”“Give her back.”“Not yet.” He flicked the rabbit
SEREIAThe house felt like it was holding its breath.I sat on the couch with my hands pressed between my knees, eyes locked on the front door, and every creak of the old wood made me jolt upright. Every shifting shadow across the wall made some stupid, desperate part of me think there, she’s there — and every time it wasn’t, the hollow place under my ribs widened a little more.Marcus had been gone twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of nothing. Twenty minutes where the only sound in the room was Valerian’s shoes against the floorboards.Gracie had retreated to the kitchen, where I could hear her filling a kettle no one was going to drink from. Sarah stood near the window, phone pressed to her ear, murmuring something low and urgent to someone I couldn’t identify. And Valerian just kept walking — six feet one way, turn, six feet back — like if he stopped moving his body might do something worse.“Valerian,” I said.He didn’t slow down.“Valerian.”That one landed. He spun toward me, eye
SEREIAThe garden was still glowing when I understood my daughter was gone.Fairy lights swayed overhead like nothing had changed. The band kept playing something soft and unbothered. Somewhere behind me, glasses clinked, someone laughed too loud at a joke I’d never hear, and the whole party just kept moving, oblivious, while the ground had opened up under me.“Liyana!” The sound that came out of me didn’t feel like my own voice. “Liyana, baby, where are you?”Nothing answered. Just the band. Just the laughter. Just a silence shaped exactly like the place her voice should have filled.“Sereia.” Valerian’s hand closed around my arm. “Where did she go?”“I don’t know. She was right there.” My throat had started closing on the words. “Playing with the other kids. She was right there, Valerian.”Sarah appeared at my shoulder, all the color gone from her face. “I turned around for one second. One second, Sereia, I was taking a picture and then—”“It’s not your fault.” I pulled free of both
SEREIAI stood outside the glass doors of The Golden Lily staring at my own reflection. My fake leather coat was peeling off and my shoes looked chopped from years of wear. I knew I didn’t look like I belonged here in the rich side of New York.This part wasn’t for people like me but it was either
SEREIAI don’t know how long we drove for but when I woke up from my nap we were leaving the busy streets of New York behind and entering a neighborhood where the trees were tall and the gates were high. The SUV pulled up to a massive iron gate that opened slowly. The car drove up a long driveway
SEREIAI have the perfect position for my dear sister.” Selena said her voice sweet and poisonous at the same time. “I’m going to be trying on a lot of dresses Martha.” Selena added. “And what better way to do this than to use my dearest sister.” She continued as she walked towards me placing her
SEREIAMy work days always felt repetitive and today was not going to be different, I laid in bed staring at the ceiling as I contemplated if this was all worth it. The stress from work, the insults and most of all the pay that wasn’t even enough. I had woken up before my alarm,which was nothing n







