Morning came without light. A gray shroud suffocated the city, the kind of suffocating sky which seemed to mirror the turmoil running in Adriana's veins. She leaned against the great window of the safehouse, her figure shadowy behind the glass, as the street beneath pulsed with muted life pedestrians streaming, cars honking, yet it was no longer real to her.
She had not slept. Not really. Her head had been too busy with Victor's warning, with the breaking alignments and how Lucian's shadow seemed to spread wider by the day. And Damian. Being at her back was solid, firm, and yet possibly deadly in itself. Every glance between them seemed to push her towards the edge of something she wasn't sure she could survive.
Still hanging around staring at the world going by?" Damian's voice boomed through the stillness, low and gravelly with sleeplessness. He was dressed already, dark shirt rolled up at the sleeves, gun harness visible through his jacket.
She leaned her head to one side, capturing the sharp lines of his face, the fierceness in his eyes when he tried to hide it. "Trying to remember what it was like to be a part of that world. Outside."
"You never actually did," he said flatly, coming closer until he was standing beside her. "And neither did I."
There wasn't venom in his words only truth. Adriana's throat tightened. "That's the thing. If we never belonged, then what the hell are we fighting for? A chair at a table that was never ours to start with?"
Damian's jaw clenched, and for a moment, she thought he wouldn't answer. But then, softer than she expected, he said, "We're not fighting for them. We're fighting for us. For something that can exist outside of Lucian's shadow."
The words resonated. Adriana dropped her gaze, her heart racing too hard in her chest. For us. He said it as if it was obvious, as if the two of them were already connected in a way that went beyond alliance or accident.
It took her a moment to respond before a heavy knock on the door broke the fragile quiet.
Damian reacted instinctively, his hand on his gun. Not until Adriana nodded weakly did he open the door. Victor slipped inside, his face pale, his usual haughty haughtiness bare.
"They're acting faster than I anticipated," he declared flatly, placing a crumpled sheet of encrypted paper on the table. "Lucian's already making contacts in the government. They've frozen assets, cut our supply lines and" His eyes turned to Adriana. "One of our people is feeding him.".
Adriana's stomach curled. Betrayal was not unknown to this world this world lived for betrayal but to hear it spoken made it something entirely different.
"Who?" Damian growled, tone harsh as a blade.
Victor shook his head. "Too soon to say. But Lucian's attention to detail… he knows things no outsider should. Routes, meeting points, even rumors of plan. He's ahead of us because someone here wants him to be."
Adriana's hands clenched into fists. "Then we go retrieve them. Round them up before they can sell us out again."
"It's not that simple," Victor protested. "If we start accusing, we fracture it all. Friends become suspicious, people switch sides. Lucian doesn't even have to lift his hand if we tear ourselves apart from within.".
Damian paced the room, step by thick step. "Then we bait them. Give them false information and see where it leads them."
Victor furrowed his brow. "Risk. But good."
Adriana's heart pounded, a plan burning through her mind like fire. "Then let's make it credible. Leak a meeting location something substantial enough Lucian can't help but follow but we'll be waiting for him. Catch the spy, and counter at the same time.".
Both of them rose and turned to face her, weighing her offer.
"You want to be bait?" Damian's eyes blazed into hers, half admiration, half fury.
"If it's effective, it ruins him," she answered coolly. "And we can use a win."
There was a long moment of silence. Then Damian cursed under his breath and raked his fingers through his hair. "Damn it, Adriana. You're going to kill me."
Her lip curled, but her chest ached. She longed to tell him he was wrong that maybe, maybe she'd prefer to be his salvation instead of his salvation-maker. But the words stuck, caught on fear and need and unspoken.
The trap was set within a day.
Damian and Adriana trained together, measuring out the angles, rehearsing contingencies. Each brush of his hand near hers, each moment when their eyes clashed, ate into the space that both of them fought to maintain. But neither permitted it to break. Not yet.
At night, she wore black, the knife strapped to her leg, the cold touch of a pistol against her stomach. She caught herself in the mirror before she went out, white face, dark eyes burning like hot embers and hardly knew herself.
Damian waited in the doorway. "Ready?"
She nodded, though she was screaming inside. "Always."
The half-vacant warehouse stood on the edge of the docks, its steel walls sounding the beat of water lapping the shore. There were shadows in every corner, except for the soft gleam of lanterns they had placed tactfully.
Victor and his men stood watch outside. Adriana and Damian stayed in the middle of the decoy meeting, prepared for Lucian's pawns or the traitor who had double-crossed them to make their move.
Minutes became hours and then an hour. The silence was oppressive, broken now and then by the creak of metal or the distant ship horn.
Adriana's heart thrashed. Every moment was a stretched string, her body suspended between fear and possibility. Damian remained a rock beside her, his eyes unwavering. But when his hand touched hers, for an instant, her resolve broke.
"Damian," she panted.
He stood before her, and the look in his eyes nearly killed her. Unadorned. Wild. Open in a way she'd never been presented with before.
If we go away," she breathed, her voice trembling, "there is something you need to know."
His fingers wrapped around hers, warm and unyielding. "Don't tell me here. Not this way. Give me a tomorrow, Adriana. One tomorrow.".
Her throat closed. She wanted to promise him that tomorrow would come, that they'd have something other than shadows and war. But the words were choked back by the sound of footsteps sending ripples through the warehouse.
Both flinched, guns up.
A figure crept into the light all too well known.
Adriana's blood turned cold.
It was not Lucian.
It was Elara.
The woman who had vowed to Adriana's people, who had fought at their side, who had laughed with her in stolen moments of peace. Her hair shorter, jaw harder, but there was no mistaking the betrayal written on her face.
"Elara," Adriana breathed.
Damian's sword stayed steady, but his gaze flicked towards Adriana. Is this the one?
The silence snapped as Elara's lips curled into a cruel smile. "You were always so idealistic, Adriana. Did you ever think you'd play at this game and not get burned?"
Adriana's heart clamped down. Memories flooded into outrage, into grief. "Why?"
"Because Lucian possesses what you don't," Elara spat. "Victory. Survival. You cling to dreams when he builds empires."
The betrayal cut more deeply than any blade.
Damian's tone was cold. "And how much did he pay you to sell your soul?"
Elara's gaze flashed to him, not retreating. "More than you can pay."
The atmosphere tightened like a spring.
Then the first shot rang out.
Chaos broke out. Bullets ripped through the quiet, sparks flashing from metal. Adriana ducked behind a crate, her pulse pounding, as Damian's precise fire cut down one of the flanking attackers who had seized Elara. She was fire and steel, her knife flashing in a swift strike at a second attacker.
Elara, however, was too swift. She darted past Adriana, her blade clashing with Adriana's, sparks flashing where steel kissed steel.
"You were my sister!" Adriana wept, fury and grief colliding.
"You were my weakness," Elara spat.
Damian's voice thunders over the battle, savage with fury. "Adriana!"
She dodged the next bullet by inches. A stinging ache shot across her arm, a graze, but enough to make her stumble. Damian was on her in a flash, protecting her, his body a barrier of sheer defiance.
They fought back to back, smooth, as if all the unsaid between them was second nature now. And for a moment, Adriana believed that maybe, just maybe, they could win.
Then Elara raised a small gadget, her grin cruel.
"Bye, Adriana."
The explosion ripped through the warehouse, fire and metal and boom all in one.
Adriana's shriek was drowned out by the thunder of the roar, her body thrown against the concrete. She was conscious of nothing but smoke and sound and Damian's arms holding her, dragging her away from the flames.
When reality flooded back, the warehouse was half destroyed, the night ablaze. Elara was not there.
And in the distance, howled sirens.
Adriana coughed, chest heaving, grasping Damian as if he were the only reality remaining in the world. His face was smudged with grime, his eyes burning with rage and something much more intense.
"She was the spy," Adriana croaked in a raw voice. "Elara…"
Damian's jaw was clenched so tightly she feared he would break. "Then we track her down. And when we catch her up, we catch Lucian."
Adriana clutched at his shirt, her heart breaking even as it burned. Elara's betrayal had opened her up wide and deep but it had also made something irretrievably plain.
There was no turning back.