𝐑𝐀𝐙𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐔𝐓𝐎

"Rue!" Her name ripped from my throat, raw and unbidden, a desperate cry that shattered the air. My feet carried me to her before I could think, my heart hammering so violently it felt like it might break free.She turned at the sound, her brows knitting together, her eyes sharp and wary. For a fleeting moment, I thought it was shock-that the haze of confusion would lift, and she would remember. She had to remember.

"Rue," I whispered again, my voice splintering as I reached her. My trembling hands found her face, cradling it as if to anchor her to me. "It's me... baby, it's me. It's Ronan."

But the warmth I expected wasn't there. Instead, she stiffened beneath my touch, her body a fragile wall against my hope. Her eyes darted to mine, searching for something she couldn't find. And in that silence, in the emptiness of her gaze, I felt it-the crushing weight of her unfamiliarity. The spark I longed for, the light that once bound us, was gone.

"I... I don't know you," she said, her voice steady but distant. She took a step back, slipping from my grasp.

✦•┈๑⋅⋯ ⋯⋅๑┈•✦

When Rue is cast into the cold, unforgiving Maze with no memory of who she is or where she came from, survival becomes her only focus. Surrounded by strangers with secrets of their own, she struggles to know who to trust, who to rely on, and who might turn against her when things fall apart. Drawn to Thomas, a boy as determined as he is enigmatic, Rue finds herself forming unlikely alliances and fragile friendships in the face of impossible odds. But as fragments of her lost past begin to resurface, the truth threatens to unravel everything she's built. Loyalties are tested, and Rue is forced to confront a question she isn't ready to answer: who was she before the Maze, and what will it cost her to find out?