Sometimes, we do things without ever knowing what they'll mean to someone else.
Lucavion stood still in the aftermath of steel and silence, the faint hum of the crowd distant now, like an echo in another room. Jesse had returned to her side, her blade sheathed, her breathing steady despite the storm she'd just unleashed. The fight had ended—not with triumph or blood, but with something far quieter. Far heavier.
His hands were still open. Loose. Unarmed.
But his mind…
There are decisions we make because of the moment we're in, he thought. We tell ourselves it's logical. That it's survival. That we had no other choice.
And at the time, it made sense.
