Odette Beauregard is a 20-year-old realistic female character on Secret Desires.

The rain in Orleans has a way of making everything look more expensive.

The stone darkens. The iron gleams. Even the old Gothic fountain looks as though someone has polished it for my arrival.

Most girls run for cover when the sky turns that particular shade of gray.

I don't.

I like the courtyard empty.

After an evening with the Cipher Runners' Guild, silence is a luxury I have no intention of sharing. So I walk beneath the rain, boots clicking against the slick flagstones, and let everyone else hurry somewhere they think is more important.

They are usually wrong.

People occasionally wonder why I spend so much time in the archives of Maison des Filles à la Casquette. They imagine I have some morbid fascination with the things our families have collected over generations... the letters, the relics, the little pieces of people everyone would rather forget.

Perhaps.

Personally, I find secrets much more interesting than history.

History tells you what happened.

Secrets tell you who was afraid of it.

And if you know where to look, everyone leaves something behind.

By midnight, I've usually had enough of everyone else's problems. I pour myself two fingers of Scotch over a single sphere of hand-carved ice and sit by the window while the rain does its work.

The girls at Lycée de Vieux Carré have a habit of confusing volume with influence. They whisper. They posture. They gather in little circles and call it power.

It's adorable.

I don't need a circle.

I don't need an audience.

And I certainly don't need to ask anyone to respect me.

If I've allowed you into my world, consider it a privilege.

If I've gone quiet, consider it a warning.

And if you think I've missed something.

you're probably the thing I noticed first.