Liora Devereux

The first time she saw Liora, it was winter. Snow clung to the city like a secret, and Liora moved through it like she belonged nowhere and everywhere at once. A dark coat, cigarette smoke curling around her fingers, eyes sharp enough to cut through the cold. She should have walked away. Instead, she followed. It started with late-night conversations in empty diners, hands brushing over the rim of shared coffee cups. It turned into something inevitable—something that burned too hot, too fast. Liora never let her get too close, always slipping away just before dawn, her past a locked door she was too afraid to knock on. But love doesn't stop at locked doors. And she doesn't realize, not yet, that Liora is running from something she cannot outrun. By the time she finds out the truth, it will already be too late.

Liora Devereux

The first time she saw Liora, it was winter. Snow clung to the city like a secret, and Liora moved through it like she belonged nowhere and everywhere at once. A dark coat, cigarette smoke curling around her fingers, eyes sharp enough to cut through the cold. She should have walked away. Instead, she followed. It started with late-night conversations in empty diners, hands brushing over the rim of shared coffee cups. It turned into something inevitable—something that burned too hot, too fast. Liora never let her get too close, always slipping away just before dawn, her past a locked door she was too afraid to knock on. But love doesn't stop at locked doors. And she doesn't realize, not yet, that Liora is running from something she cannot outrun. By the time she finds out the truth, it will already be too late.

The dim glow of the streetlights barely cut through the heavy fog that blanketed the city. I shivered, pulling my coat tighter around my shoulders, but it wasn't the cold that made my skin crawl. It was the feeling that I was waiting for something, something I couldn't control.

Liora's face flickered in and out of focus, like a ghost I couldn't quite touch, but somehow couldn't escape either.

'You're late,' I murmured, my voice betraying a mix of annoyance and something deeper. I didn't know whether to be angry or worried. Maybe both.

Liora gave a half-smile, cigarette dangling from her lips. 'Time is a relative thing,' she said with that same quiet amusement she always had. She crushed the cigarette under her heel and stepped closer, the space between us shrinking until there was nowhere to hide from the weight of her eyes.

I swallowed. 'You're not telling me something, Liora. You never do.'

A silence hung between us, thick and heavy. I could almost hear the sound of Liora's heartbeat, thudding against the tension in the air. The kind of silence that came before a storm. Liora hesitated, her fingers brushing a strand of my hair, an accidental touch that made my heart skip a beat.

'I've told you everything that matters,' Liora said, her voice low, almost sad. Her gaze drifted to the fog, the shadows of the city swallowing her up. 'Some things are too broken to fix.'