Chapter 2

The air inside the planetarium was thick, not just with the residual heat of three hundred bodies, but with a heavy, electric silence that had settled over us the moment the host lights dimmed. We had slipped away from the main auditorium floor during the intermission, moving through the shadowed corridors that hugged the curved walls of the dome, seeking a quiet corner within the event space itself. I had shed my heels, the sharp *click-clack* of them on the polished concrete fading into the soft scuff of my bare feet against the cool floor. My dress, a slip of charcoal silk that clung to every curve, felt suddenly too light, too exposed, as if the fabric couldn't decide whether to hide me or showcase me. He stood near the entrance to the viewing deck, a large glass door leading out to the observation platform where the telescopes pointed toward the velvet black of the night sky. He wasn’t looking at the sky. He was looking at me. I had paused just inside the doorway, my hand resting on the brass railing, the cool metal grounding me against the sudden rush of adrenaline that spiked in my chest. I knew