The silence after the bang is so loud it makes my ears throb.Julian’s blood is just creeping across the stone, thick and shiny like oil under those buzzing lights. His eyes are wide open, staring at nothing, staring at the ceiling. The boy who used to make me laugh, the boy who promised he’d always keep me safe, the boy who lied to me every single second we were together—he’s just a pile of meat at my mother’s feet.I can’t stop looking at him. I want to look away, but my eyes are glued to his face.My mother shoves the gun back into her jacket with this smooth, practiced twist of her wrist, like she’s just putting away a pen. Then she turns around and looks at me, smoothing her face into this fake, soft, motherly look that makes my stomach turn.“You’ll get used to it,” she says, her voice completely calm. “Power demands sacrifices. Julian became a risk. He let his feelings cloud his judgment. That cannot be tolerated in our world.”Our world.The words make my skin itch, make me wa
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