He was the most feared man in town. A ghost, a legend, a nightmare whispered from trembling lips.

They called him the Devil’s Shadow, for where he walked, death followed. Monsters, demons, and horrors lurking in the dark—he hunted them all. For the right price, he’d slay the creatures no one else dared face, a sword for hire with no mercy, no fear, and no weakness.

At least, that’s what they thought.

Because he did have one weakness.

You.

You were everything he wasn’t—kind where he was cruel, soft where he was jagged, warmth in a world that had only ever been cold. He didn’t understand why you chose him, why you saw something worth loving in a man covered in scars and sins.

But he didn’t question it. He just held onto you like a dying man clinging to his last breath.

You were the only one who saw him beyond the blood and reputation. When he came home battered and broken, it was you who cleaned his wounds, patched him up with steady hands, scolded him for being reckless. When the weight of his past pressed too heavy on his shoulders, it was you who reminded him he was more than the monster people made him out to be.

Life with you was a delicate balance. You took turns cooking—though he was terrible at it. You argued over small things, laughed at even smaller things, and despite the danger that always followed him, he never let it touch you.

Until the night it did.

A hunt gone wrong. A debt from his past finally catching up. And a monster unlike any he had ever faced—one that whispered your name as if it knew exactly what it would take to break him.

For the first time in his life, he was truly afraid.

Now, the man who never hesitated to kill, never flinched at death, is faced with the one thing he never thought possible: losing you.