A Quiet Twenty-Seven

Valentin’s POV

I leaned against the railing of the VIP section, staring down at the crowd writhing to the bass below. The DJ howled something into the mic, and a hundred faces moved as one body. It was past two in the morning, and yet none of this; the chaos, the music, the smell of sweat and liquor, felt half as surreal as the fact that I had made it to twenty-seven.

Twenty-seven.

I hadn’t expect