Page 16 of Eat Slay Love

Darkness into light.

Alchemy was the art of becoming.

Of refining.

Of emerging anew.

And as I stood there, heart hammering like an alchemist’s chisel against stone, I realized that I, too, had come here with a transformation in mind.

Not of metal.

Not of matter.

But of self.

I was here to forge something more valuable than gold.

I was here to rebuild my worth.

Reshape my radiance.

To step across this threshold and into the truth I had carried in the quiet corners of my soul all my life—that I was meant to be seen.

To be loved.

To take up space as the queen I had always known myself to be, even in the moments I had doubted it.

Even when I’d been treated like the opposite.

Dalvin smiled at me. “Make sure you have the time of your life,beautiful.”

A blushing smile spread across my face. “I will.”

Then, I exhaled and strolled forward.

Alright. Here we go.

Chapter two

The Unholy Hunger in His Eyes

Rae

I stepped inside, and the world shifted.

The first thing I noticed wasn’t the people standing in the dimly lit room but the way the space itself breathed.

The ceiling stretched high above, painted in the deepest black, scattered with tiny glimmering silver lights like an endless midnight sky.

Starlit and infinite.

There was no telling where the black walls ended, as if we had stepped into some celestial void—a place where time unraveled, and the ordinary no longer applied.

This is just. . .amazing.

A soft mist curled along the floor, delicate as silk, swirling around my ankles with each step.

The scent of something exquisite and decadent filled the air—amber, vanilla, and a hint of spicy smoke—like the lingering memory of a passionate night.

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