Page 48 of The Beautiful Ones

“Did you hear me?” I asked. “Elin, did you hear? I said everything.”

Her eyes met mine.

“I heard every word.”

The quietness of her answer cut through my delight.

I looked down at the gloves twisted between my fingers. “I—I d-didn’t m-mean—”

The first word closed. Then the second.

Panic rushed into the space the miracle had left behind.

Adrian had reached the French doors. He turned his head and looked at me across the length of the arcade.

A cool breath touched the back of my neck.

“I did not mean all of it,” I said.

The sentence emerged flawlessly.

I went still.

Elin heard the difference. I saw it in her face.

“Which part?” she asked.

I could not answer—not because the words would not come, but because I did not know which truth I was willing to surrender. I resented her interference. I resented needing her. I loved her. I wanted to hurt her for making me feel afraid. All of it lived together inside me, too tangled for any voice to make clean.

Adrian extended his hand from the doorway.

“Miss Lebon?”

The distance between us was far too great for him to expect me to take it, yet the gesture felt intimate, as though his palm waited just beneath mine.

I looked once more at Elin.

She lowered the parasol. Whatever answer she had hoped to find in my face was no longer there.

I walked toward Adrian.

With every step, my throat grew lighter. By the time I reached the doors, a hundred beautiful sentences waited behind my teeth. I knew I should have been frightened by the pattern. I knew Elin had seen it too.

But fear had never given me anything except silence.

Adrian had given me words.

“Are you coming?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered without hesitation.

Behind me, Elin said my name.

I did not turn.

Blue butterflies descended upon the rose garden, settling over every open bloom until a living wall of wings trembled between us.

CHAPTER TEN