The moment my teeth pressed against my lower lip, the air around me changed.
It wasn't sudden.
It was slow… heavy… deliberate—like something unseen had stepped closer, close enough to claim space.
I stopped breathing.
The room was still empty, yet I could feel him.
"Don't hurt yourself for me," the voice whispered, low and dark, brushing against my thoughts instead of my ears.
I froze.
"You're real," I said quietly, my voice steady only because fear had long stopped controlling me.
A soft chuckle echoed—dangerous, amused.
"Real enough to ruin you… if I wanted."
I smiled.
He didn't expect that.
"You won't," I replied. "If you wanted to harm me, you would've already done it."
Silence.
Then—approval.
"You're not weak," he said. "That's why I noticed you."
The shadows near the wall thickened, pulling together like smoke forced into a shape. Slowly, he appeared—not fully alive, not entirely dead. His eyes held centuries of violence… and something far more dangerous—attachment.
"I know who you are," he continued. "Mafia queen. Your friends follow you like soldiers, but they have no idea what you truly are."
My blood didn't run cold.
It burned.
"And I know who you were," I said, meeting his gaze. "Another mafia leader. Another empire. Another monster."
His lips curved into a dark smile.
"Enemies in life," he murmured. "Fate has a twisted sense of humor."
He stepped closer. I didn't move.
"You should fear me," he said.
"I don't fear things that want me," I replied.
For the first time, his expression cracked.
A promise formed in the air—unspoken, heavy, binding.
"I can't touch your world," he said slowly. "And you can't enter mine."
"Then we meet in the dark," I answered.
The shadows wrapped around my wrist—not tight, not painful—a mark, invisible but undeniable.
"I don't make promises lightly," he said. "If I claim you, I protect you. From the living… and the dead."
I looked at the mark, then back at him.
"Then don't leave," I said.
His voice dropped to a whisper meant only for me.
"I already stayed."
And that was the moment I realized—
this wasn't a ghost story anymore.
This was a war-bound love, cursed, forbidden, and irreversible.