Chapter 3 The Cold Stranger
The city had a rhythm that never stopped, but Aria felt like she had been dropped out of it entirely. Every step she took echoed in her chest, as if the streets themselves were warning her to turn back.
Kael Virelli's presence lingered even when he wasn't there. It wasn't just fear there was something magnetic, something impossible to ignore. He was like ice with fire beneath it, a contradiction she couldn't unravel.
She tried to focus on her work, the folder of secrets her father left behind, but the shadows of the alley kept creeping into her thoughts. Every whispered rumor, every hushed conversation she overheard, all led back to him.
Then he appeared. Not lurking, not hidden walking toward her like he owned the city. And in a way, he did.
"Do you always run from what's meant for you?" Kael asked, his voice low, deliberate. The words weren't a question they were a challenge.
Aria squared her shoulders. "I'm not running. I'm surviving."
A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. "Survival won't save you. Not from me. Not from your own blood."
Her pulse quickened. This man was more than a shadow in the city he was a force of nature. And she realized with a chill that the storm she had been warned about was already inside her.