Chapter 22: See you in the future
Enzo’s POV
The sheets were cold when I woke up.
For a moment, I lay still, eyes blinking against the soft light streaming in through the blinds. The warmth of the night before clung to my skin like a second layer a memory that hadn’t fully faded. My body ached in all the right ways, pleasure lingering in my limbs, but there was a dull throb too. An emptiness. A strange, quiet hollowness that settled in the pit of my stomach as I turned and found the other side of the bed empty.
Alaric was gone.
No note. No sound. No trace but the lingering scent of his cologne on the pillow.
The sting of it was sharper than I expected. I sat up slowly, dragging the sheet with me. My heart beat a little too fast for no good reason. I wasn’t some lovesick teenager—God, no. But still, it stung. After everything he’d said. After everything he’d done. Worship, he’d called it. Like I was something holy. And then he vanished like none of it mattered.
"Don’t be stupid," I muttered to myself, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.
I padded to the bathroom and turned the shower on. The water hit me like a wall—hot and grounding. I stood under the stream for a long time, hands braced against the tiles, letting it wash away the disappointment and the ghost of Alaric’s touch.
By the time I got to work, I’d buried it. Or tried to.