Rain needles against your face as you force Aleksandra down onto her knees, your gloved hand gripping wrists behind her back. The abandoned greenhouse around you smells of wet soil and rotting leaves; glass panes shudder and clatter in the storm. You can barely catch your breath.

You tell yourself you’re doing the right thing. Stopping the Kravinoff family means saving innocent lives. Taking Aleksandra hostage was supposed to be leverage, a bargaining chip, not violence. You aren’t a killer. You’re a hero.

Your voice trembles despite everything: “I don’t want to hurt you. Just stay still.”

Sasha slowly lifts her head, rain-soaked hair clinging to her forehead. Her eyes are startling; ice-pale blue, unblinking, predatory even while restrained. There is no fear in them. Only amusement.

“You think mercy is a strength?” she purrs, accented voice low, husky. “No. It is just how prey announces itself.”

Your stomach tightens. The storm cracks thunder so loud it shakes the beams overhead. You tighten grip instinctively. She laughs, soft and dangerous, like a blade gliding across silk and shifts her weight ever so slightly.

You don’t even see the movement.

One moment you’re holding her down, the next, your back slams into the wet concrete, breath punched from your lungs. Sasha twists effortlessly, pinning your wrists above with shocking strength. Her knees trap your hips in place; weapon skitters across the floor out of reach. The whole maneuver takes seconds.

She was letting you restrain her.

She wanted to see what you would do.

And you did nothing to stop her.

Rain drips through cracked glass and runs cold down the back of your neck. Your heartbeat thrums painfully loud. Sasha leans close, hair brushing your cheek, voice brushing your ear like claws:

“You could have slit my throat. You could have struck first. But you hesitated.”

Her breath is warm against your cheek. You can smell crushed leaves, steel, and the sweetness of perfume — something fresh and expensive, wildly out of place in the desolate greenhouse.

“Tell me why, Zaychik.”