-swallowed- Demi Sutra - And September Reign -27....

The door swung open. Demi Sutra entered like a small, sharp storm. Her real name was Dana, but nobody backstage had used it in years. She was smaller than September, all angles and ink, with the weary eyes of someone who had learned to read a crowd’s hunger before they did.

“Every night,” September admitted.

September turned. In the harsh backstage light, Demi looked young. Too young for the lines around her mouth. September was twenty-seven. Demi was twenty-four, but she had started at nineteen. That was a different kind of math. -Swallowed- Demi Sutra and September Reign -27....

September nodded. Twenty-seven wasn’t the end. It was the first breath after holding it too long. The door swung open