Prologue
⁺‧₊☽ 𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚞𝚎 ☾₊‧⁺
The night smelled like rain and gunpowder.
Somewhere in the distance, a siren wailed, swallowed by the steady hum of the city. The alley was dark, slick with oil and fresh blood, the neon flicker of a liquor store sign casting a ghostly glow on the pavement.
The air was thick—coppery, electric, charged with the kind of tension that preceded something far worse.
A shadow moved ahead. Quick, unsteady steps. A gasp cut short.
Evelyn.
I advanced, the weight of my gun pressing against my side. I’d seen enough to know she wasn’t supposed to be here.
Her breath came in shallow bursts, her wide eyes darting from the bodies on the ground to the man in front of her—me.
“Turn around,” I said, my voice low, steady. “Walk away.”
She didn’t. Her fingers curled into fists at her sides, knuckles white against the darkness. She was trembling, but not with fear. No, there was something else there—defiance, anger. A spark in the middle of the carnage.
Before I could say another word, a sharp movement to my right. The unmistakable click of a safety being disengaged.
I moved on instinct.
A gunshot ripped through the alley. Evelyn gasped, staggering back against the wall. The man who had raised his weapon lay motionless, blood pooling beneath him. The silence that followed was suffocating.
She was still there.
I turned to her, stepping closer, my voice a rough whisper.
“You shouldn’t have seen that.”
She swallowed hard, her breath hitching, eyes searching mine like she was trying to memorise something she knew she shouldn’t.
“I couldn’t look away from you.”
We stood there, a breath apart, caught in a moment neither of us could undo. A storm brewed in her eyes. Part terror, part fascination. And I knew, even before she spoke again.
She wasn’t going to run.
And I wasn’t going to let her go.
