[Lilly's Pov]
I found it by accident.
I wasn't looking. Wasn't digging.
Just reaching for her jacket—Sam's jacket, actually—because hers had blood on it, and the nights were getting colder underground.
The letter fell like a slow-dropped knife.
The wax was already broken.
Alyx's name, slashed in Alyx's handwriting across the front, stared back like an accusation.
I didn't breathe when I unfolded it.
Didn't blink.
Just read.
-"Lilly-If you're reading this, it means I didn't make it. Good. That means you lived.
Don't spiral, okay? I know you. You'll blame yourself. You'll bury the softest parts of you in guilt like it's armor. But I want you to do one thing:
Trust her. Sam's not just some heiress you're protecting. She's smarter than you know. Deadlier than she lets on.
And if she tells you to run, you run. If she says it's time to burn everything down—you light the match.
Because I found something. Something I never got to tell you. The name is behind the breaker panel on the west wall. It's real. It's alive. And it changes everything.
Don't go alone. You won't survive it. But with her? You might."-
The words crawled under my ribs and curled up there, like they'd been waiting.
I crumpled.
Quietly. Knees to the floor, forehead pressed to the cool stone. I didn't cry like in the movies. Didn't scream.
I just shook.
Alyx had trusted Sam. Believed in her. More than I did right now.
And Sam had hidden this.
I would've never known. Never read it. Never had the last words of the one person who knew me before the mission, before the blood.
That betrayal? It felt like losing Alyx all over again.
And still—Sam said nothing.
I tucked the note away, too carefully. Composed my face like a mask. When I turned back to the common room, Sam was standing there, her eyes bright with concern.
"Lilly?" Sam asked. "You, okay?"
My voice caught on the edge of something dangerous.
"Yeah. Just tired."
Sam tilted her head, like she almost believed it.
Almost.
But didn't push.
Instead, she stepped closer, brushed her fingers against my arm. The touch was soft. Almost reverent.
And for the first time in days, I flinched.
[Sam's Pov]
I felt it.
The chill in the room that hadn't been there before. The space between them that had been filled with heat and whispered promises and was now just space.
I didn't know what changed.
I didn't know that Lilly had found the letter.
I didn't know that her silence had become a blade.
I only knew something had cracked.
And maybe this was what Alyx warned me about.
Maybe the truth wasn't the only thing that could shatter me.
Maybe it was keeping it.