The square had ceased to be square.
It was a battleground.
Boots hammered against stone, smoke writhed through the air like something alive, and the bark of fire crackled through the darkness. Cordite and blood hung on every breath, stifling, heavy.
Damian moved like a beast, knife flashing, body whirling in deadly precision. Every strike was measured, every move cooled by years of surviving. But for the first time in years, he didn't fight for himself.
Adriana stood with him.
And she fought like a fire.
She dodged low under a blow, pilfered knife glinting in the dim light of streetlamps before she thrust it hard into an attacker's ribs. The man yelped, fell, and she jerked the blade loose, chest shaking.
Her body was trembling, but her eyes weren't. She would not yield.
Damian noticed that and something inside him locked down, a pull he couldn't give in to. "Adriana
"I'm fine!" she screamed back, her voice raspy but stubborn. "Just never leave me!"
He grinned nearly, even as he slashed his knife across another throat. "Never."
Back through the fog, Victor came. His coat was rent, his cheek slashed, but his eyes gleamed the same calculating shrewdness. He dispatched two men with raw efficiency, then leaned his back against the fountain where they lay.
"This city bleeds sooner than I expected," he snarled, wiping down his blade. "Lucian did always love the drama."
Adriana spun around at him, rage burning through the insanity. "You betrayed us "
Victor raised an eyebrow, entirely unbothered. "I betrayed all of them, sweetheart. That's the survival secret." His gaze slid to Damian, frigid. "But I'll give you credit I didn't think you'd last this long. Impressive."
Damian's face set hard. "Cut the talk or get out of my way."
But Victor smiled feebly, the way one might after seeing a particularly fine performance in a play. "I'll help you tonight, cousin. But don't forget when Lucian falls, there will be debts between us."
And before Adriana could spit another oath, he vanished into the fog once more.
The enemy came on closer. No matter how many fell, there were always more endless, unstopable, covering the piazza in metal and flames. And then, as if the madness subsided for him, the tide of foe broke apart.
Lucian passed through, unmolested, unruffled. His coat brushed the ground, his presence cutting finer than any blade.
Damian stepped between Adriana and the rank of foe, taut, protecting.
Lucian's eyes gleamed as he approached. "So this is what you've chosen, Damian? To fight for her?" His gaze flicked to Adriana, cold amusement dancing there. "She burns brightly, yes. But so do candles right before they die."
Adriana lifted her chin, fury pushing past fear. "You'll have to kill me yourself."
Lucian smiled thinly. "Gladly."
He was faster than Adriana had expected. His sword flashed out, cutting for her throat but Damian threw it aside in a crushing blow of steel on steel. Sparks flared, the shock ringing through her bones.
"Get behind me!"
"No!" Adriana spat, pressing forward with her knife. She stabbed at Lucian, but he wheeled easily, catching her wrist as she lunged. His hand was like iron, unyielding.
"Snappy," Lucian snarled, pinching till a shot of pain traveled up her arm. "But not enough."
Damian bellowed, ramming his sword into Lucian's side. Lucian released Adriana just in time, deflecting Damian's blow with forced speed. The clanging of their blades meeting rang through the smoke like the pealing of church bells.
Each sets a tempest Damian with brute power, Lucian with measured ferocity. They were two sides of the same coin, one's shadow, war-tempered brothers.
Adriana withdrew, her heart pounding. Every nerve screamed at her to get out—yet she didn't. She couldn't. She grabbed a fallen pistol on the ground, shaky but solid enough to shoot.
And then
A crack cut through the air.
Lucian spun Damian into the line of fire, using his cousin as a human shield. The bullet grazed Damian's arm, shredding flesh, blood spraying. Damian hissed, clenching his jaw to keep his grip on his blade.
Adriana was frozen, horror constricting her chest. "No!"
Lucian's laugh was cold and low. "See? Love is weakness. Now you bleed for her."
But Damian refused to give in. He plunged ahead, agony forgotten, repelling Lucian with fury that shook even the enemy lines. "No, Lucian. I die for myself. For the man you could not slay."
Sirens wailed in the distance police, army, the city at last alive to the brutality tearing its heart asunder. Lucian's eyes snapped at the sound, irritation cutting his face.
"Another time," he murmured, backing away, his men closing ranks around him. "But don't fool yourself, Damian. You've only delayed what's inevitable."
With a flick of his hand, smoke bombs detonated, drowning the square in choking blackness.
When it cleared, Lucian was gone.
Silence crashed, heavy and ringing. Bodies littered the square, smoke still curling upward. Damian stood bleeding, his blade dripping red, his chest heaving. Adriana was at his side instantly, her hands shaking as she tried to press against his wound.
"You're hurt," she whispered, voice cracking.
"I've been worse," he muttered, trying for calm, but his body swayed.
Tears stung her eyes. "Don't you ever make me pretend this doesn't mean anything. You nearly " Her voice broke, raw. "You nearly left me."
Damian squeezed his fingers into her jaw, pulling her face against his. Through the blood, through the ruins around them, his eyes blazed steady.
"I said it," he growled. "Never."
Her breath hitched, her heart splintering open in flames and embers. For a moment, the world fell away no Lucian, no betrayal, no blood. Just the two of them, bound by something greater than terror.
And in the silence, Adriana seized the reality she could no longer deny. She wasn't just surviving with Damian.
She was surviving for him.