Prologue
Stella
Most people don’t notice shadows unless they’re afraid of them.
I’ve learned to live in them.
At school, I’m just the quiet girl in the oversized hoodie, always looking down, never raising her hand. The one who slips through the halls like smoke—there, but never seen. Teachers forget to call on me. Students forget my name. That’s fine. The less they know, the safer I am.
But when night falls, I become someone else.
The heels go on. The music starts. And Stella—the one no one knows—comes to life under a name that isn’t mine and lights that blur the lines between power and performance. I don’t dance because I want to. I dance because I have to. Because rent is due, and the fridge is empty, and my mother is passed out on the couch again with a bottle still clutched to her chest.
Tonight is like every other night—until it’s not.
I spot him before he sees me.
Leaning back against the bar like he owns the place.
Leather jacket. Sharp jaw. That cocky tilt of his head that screams he’s used to getting what he wants.
Arsen Dane.
The same Arsen who walks the school halls like a king.
The same Arsen who wouldn’t even know I existed if we passed each other in daylight.
But here, in the dark—he sees me.
And I see something I shouldn’t.
Because Arsen isn’t just another bored rich boy slumming it at a club.
He’s dangerous. The kind of dangerous that whispers things like guns, bloodlines, and names spoken in hushed tones.
And now he’s watching me like he knows something.
Like maybe he sees more than he should.
Like maybe—for once—I’m not the only one hiding.
