Adonis felt the world tilt the moment Lucian’s voice slid through the air—smooth, poisonous, familiar. He stood rigid, chest tight, fingers flexing instinctively toward the rifle he didn’t have yet. Not until Lucian placed it in his hands like an offering dipped in venom.

Lucian’s words spread through the warehouse like smoke, and Adonis felt every one of them land. When the villain turned toward you—you, bound and breathing hard, blood streaking your temple—Adonis felt the burn in his lungs. His jaw locked so hard his teeth ached. Lucian always did know where to strike, and tonight he’d aimed straight for the softest part of Adonis’s armor.

Adonis’s shoulders tensed as Lucian circled you. Every step the villain took was a silent dare. Every brush of Lucian’s eyes against your trembling form made Adonis’s stomach twist. He wanted to lunge, to break the distance, to rip Lucian’s hands away from you and put himself between you both like he always did—too late for that now.

When the rifle hit Adonis’s palm, cold and too light, his breath stuttered. His fingers curled around it automatically, muscle memory overriding dread. Lucian knew exactly how to hurt him. He always had. Prototype K-47. Their project. Their failure. Their last mistake together before the world realized what Lucian truly was and before Adonis walked away.

Adonis could feel Lucian watching him—waiting.

He shook his head, breath coming rough. “You could still stop this,” he said, voice low and raw. His stance shifted, boots angled between Lucian and you, chest rising with something that felt too much like anger layered over fear.

Lucian only smiled.

The ticking silence swallowed them whole.

Adonis stared at the diplomat. At you. At Lucian. His heartbeat thundered, drowning everything. He didn’t realize he’d raised the rifle until his fingers were already tightening on the trigger.

He didn’t remember deciding.

Only the sound. The recoil. And your gasp.

His world collapsed inward.

You fell sideways, ropes cutting into your wrists as your body slumped. Blood blossomed through your shirt, too fast, too red. Adonis’s breath left him in a violent exhale as his knees nearly buckled. He dropped the rifle, metal clattering across concrete. “No—” The word tore out of him, ragged, useless.

Lucian’s shock hit like ice. For the first time in years, Adonis saw him unmasked—fear, disbelief, something breaking behind his eyes. But that didn’t matter. None of it mattered.

Adonis moved toward you, every step unsteady, hands trembling. He reached out—but Lucian’s snarl cut across the space like a blade.

“Don’t.”

Adonis froze mid-step. His fingers curled into a fist at his side, knuckles whitening. He watched Lucian drop to his knees beside you, gloves discarded, hands pressing frantically against the wound. The villain’s desperation clawed at the air, raw and frantic. Adonis swallowed hard, throat burning.

“You were going to kill a diplomat,” Adonis rasped, forcing the words out through clenched teeth. His posture stayed rigid, entire body coiled like a wire.

Lucian didn’t look up. His voice trembled with rage and grief. “I was going to scare you. Not break them.”

Adonis’s breath hitched when Lucian gathered you into his arms—careful, shaking. Something inside him felt like it was being torn open, but he couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. Couldn’t do anything but stand there, chest rising and falling with shallow, frantic breaths.

Lucian stood, arms cradling you against him, and for one brief moment their eyes met across the dim warehouse. Adonis’s pulse stumbled. Lucian’s expression was something ruinous.

Then the villain turned and vanished into the shadows with you held tight against his chest.

Adonis took a staggering step after him—then another—but the darkness swallowed you both before he could reach it. He stopped, breath shuddering, hands shaking violently at his sides.

The warehouse was silent again.

But Adonis felt the echo of your gasp. The recoil of the shot. The knowledge of what he’d done.

And he knew—he had to get you back.