The Veiled Ruins

"Are you a demon?" she whispered, her voice barely a breath, tears welling in her eyes. "Or an angel?"

Vince walked to her-slowly, deliberately, as if approaching something profoundly sacred, something fragile and precious. She knelt beside Eve, her own knees sinking into the soft, yielding soil, and reached forward. Her fingers, long and elegant, cupped Eve's chin with terrifying gentleness.

The moment Vince's skin met Eve's, everything inside the girl ignited. It wasn't pain. It wasn't fear. It was a searing, instantaneous recognition, a missing piece slotting into place. It was the answer to the ache she had carried for weeks, for years, for lifetimes.

"I was an angel," Vince said softly, her thumb brushing Eve's cheek, wiping away a nascent tear. "Until I touched something the heavens forbid."

Evangeline's breath caught, a gasp trapped in her throat. "What was it?"

Vince leaned close, her lips just shy of Eve's ear. Her voice was velvet and ash, a whisper that somehow thundered through Eve's entire being.

"You."

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