“To winning?” I suggest.
He clinks his cup lightly against mine.
“To celebrations.”
The alcohol is sweet and stronger than it looks.
We watch the crowd move around us. Russo is talking to a group of girls who are laughing too hard.
Zane shakes his head. “Team morale.”
“I can see that.”
“They’ve been waiting a while for this.”
“You played well tonight.”
He glances at me, slightly surprised. “You were watching?”
I shrug. “Sometimes.”
“Suspicious,” he says, teasing me.
I take another sip of the drink to hide my smile.
Around us the party surges louder, the music shifting into something even more chaotic as the crowd presses closer to the dance floor.
In here the noise covers everything. My voice. The riskthat standing this close to Zane Blake might somehow give something away.
Here I’m just another girl in a costume at a Halloween party.
15
ZANE
The drink is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.
Not making me drunk - just smoothing the edges, making the noise of the party feel farther away than it actually is. Making it easier to stand here beside her instead of overthinking every word.
She sips her drink and watches the crowd.
“Your teammates seem to be having a good night,” she says, nodding toward the corner where Mercer is attempting some kind of dance move that definitely won’t end well.
“They’ve earned it.”
“Even the one who looks like he’s having a seizure?”
I laugh. “Especially him.”
She smiles into her cup and something in my chest shifts slightly.
Easy, I tell myself.You don’t even know her name.
But that’s the thing, isn’t it? I’ve wanted to know her name since the first time she disappeared into the dark.
The music shifts - slower, heavier, the kind of beat thatvibrates through the floor and into your bones. Around us, couples start drifting toward the makeshift dance floor in the center of the room.
She glances toward them, then back at me.
