39. Silas
Silas
The club smelled like sweat and whatever new disinfectant spray they switched to when I was gone.
I didn’t mind the lemon scent, but it definitely took some time getting used to when I came back.
Other than that, everything was completely the same and Ruined was thriving, even in my absence.
I had returned a few months ago and now I was able to experience this every day with Ember by my side.
Leaning against the edge of the bar, my eyes scanned the crowd, looking for her.
I loved being back in this atmosphere, but I’d grown accustomed to having her next to me. Sweeping my eyes over the room again, I caught many flickers of movement. As a strobe of green reached across the room, my eyes finally landed on her and my heart swelled with pride.
Ember, my ember, was walking through the crowd toward me.
She was wearing a white dress tonight, one that I had bought her for our honeymoon.
I knew the lights would catch it just right here, especially with the new mask she’d been given.
Made from a black material that mimicked mine, hers was almost an exact replica but instead of a purple crack, she had an outline of yellow flames that danced across the bridge of her nose and cheekbones.
The design was so perfectly her and the one she wore here at work, marking her as the new co-owner.
The crowd swirled around us, bodies colliding and pressing together, but I never looked away from her.
In fact, I didn’t breathe until she was close enough for me to touch.
The feeling that rushed through me as she entered my arms was identical to the one I had the first time she left my club—overwhelming obsession.
Even then, she had ruined me completely.
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