CASSIAN
The dial tone echoed in my ear like a funeral knell. Alex's voice, smooth and mocking, played on a loop in my skull. "We're having a little fun here, Cassian… You've already lost."
The rage that followed was a physical thing, a black, suffocating tide that drowned the logic I usually prided myself on. I stood in the center of the gala's main hall, the glittering chandeliers and the forced laughter of the elite feeling like a personal insult.
I didn't shove past people; I tore through them. I moved like a predator through a flock of sheep, my shoulders knocking guests aside, ignoring the indignant gasps and the spilled champagne. My eyes were frantic, scanning every cluster of suits, every silk gown, searching for a flash of Noah's navy suit or the silver-tongued monster who had taken him.
