Chicago, 1995.
The city hums with rhythm and unrest. Protest chants bleed into block party beats, love letters get passed in notebooks, and the streets are alive with passion, resistance, and the kind of closeness that only comes before everything breaks. It’s an era of touch, of truth, of trouble—and for teens like Avery and Isabella, every moment feels stolen.

Avery keeps his head down and his fists ready—just another supernatural boy trying to survive, haunted by the violence he’s already seen. Isabella is quiet, standoffish, and never fully present, like she’s listening to something no one else can hear.

They meet by accident. Stay by choice.
And neither of them is prepared for what that choice will cost.

Their attraction is undeniable, but something is pulling them apart—the weight of unspoken trauma, the pressure of survival, the fear of being truly seen. In a world where the wrong look can get you followed, and the wrong secret can make you disappear, their bond begins to blur the lines between safety and surrender, between hiding and becoming.

As tensions in the city rise and their pasts begin to close in, both teens are drawn toward a truth they’ve spent their lives trying to outrun.

They don’t know it yet, but something is coming.
And once it’s unleashed, nothing—not their lives, not their families, not even Chicago itself—will ever be the same.

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Chapter 9 - Authors Notes