Scarlet Wars (Sapere #3)

Prologue

It’s been weeks since I first saw her.

She’s gorgeous, but it wasn’t her stunning beauty that made me fall.

It was the brilliance in her eyes—the quiet genius of thought behind them,

the way her mind moves through a complicated world,

like it already knows how it will end.

I watch her.

Every single day.

Not out of some newly acquired habit, but out of hunger for something I cannot name.

Which is how I find out about him

The one she loves.

The man she gives her laughter to, her silences, her soul.

He isn’t haunted.

He doesn’t carry ghosts of hurt like I do.

He lives in the light, and she loves him for it.

Even now, even after he broke her heart,

she still breathes for him.

And he’s coming back for her.

I’ve seen the desperation in him.

The plan now fully formed in his mind.

The grand, inevitable gesture.

Theirs will be a story of second chance.

He will win her back.

But not yet.

Not tonight.

Tonight, she’s mine.

Even if just for a moment, even if she forgets.

I’ll be her dark mistake.

The shadow she lets in before the sun returns.

I’ll be hers.

And she’ll be fucking mine.

Lucia.