The chamber was still humming with tension when the door creaked open. A familiar voice, smooth but edged, slid into the silence.
"Well, well… looks like I walked in at the wrong time."
Cairo.
He leaned against the doorframe, dressed in his usual half-buttoned shirt and loose trousers, eyes half-lidded as if he didn't care about the weight of the world pressing into this room. But Rayon saw it—behind that lazy arrogance was sharp steel, always calculating.
Rayon smirked, raising his glass. "Well, looks like the gang is here."
Cairo arched a brow, lips twitching. "Gang? Don't lump me in with your strings and shadow deals, Rayon. I'm the crown jewel in this room, and you know it."
The words hung there—arrogant, challenging—but then Rayon chuckled low in his chest. It was dark, amused, the kind of laugh that said he'd already calculated three ways this night could end. Severin, for the first time, cracked a grin.
The two predators laughed, and Cairo let it linger, crossing the room with the confidence of a man who never ducked a fight.
Old Names, New Bonds
Severin studied him as he poured another glass. "Cairo Vale. Haven't seen you since the Red Dunes job."
Cairo tilted his head, unimpressed. "Didn't think you'd remember me, Severin."
"Hard to forget the man who conned an entire caravan into handing over their goods and thanking him for it."
Rayon's eyes flicked between them. "So you two know each other."
"Not enemies," Cairo said smoothly, taking his seat. "Not allies either. Just… orbiting the same blood-soaked stars."
"Until now," Severin added, eyes gleaming.
The air thickened. Three men sat at one table—each dangerous, each with their own ambitions—but their laughter carried an edge of inevitability.
Cairo swirled his wine, looking between them. "So let me guess. Rayon burned half the Association's pride, Severin came sniffing blood and opportunity, and now you two are deciding whether to dance together or slit each other's throats."
Rayon leaned back, smirk cutting sharper. "You make it sound more complicated than it is."
Cairo scoffed. "It always is complicated, Rayon. You just like pretending it isn't."
Severin chuckled. "He's right. We don't need trust to bind us, nor friendship. What binds men like us…" He raised his glass. "…is vision. We see the world for what it really is: rotten. And we'll carve it into something else, piece by piece, corpse by corpse."
The three glasses clinked.
No smiles of trust. No false brotherhood. Just recognition. Three men bound not by blood, not by loyalty, but by the same ruthless understanding of the world: everything was prey, and they were the hunters.