PROLOG
He taught me how to bleed.
Tonight, I make him feel it.
The gun felt heavier than it should have in my hands.
He didn’t flinch.
I wondered if any fragment of the man I’d loved still existed behind that impenetrable wall.
“Lower the gun, Scarlett,” he said. “You have no idea what pit you’re stepping into.”
I ignored the warning. “It isn’t fair,” I spat. “It isn’t fair that you’ve lost nothing.”
He raised one eyebrow—mocking, deliberate. “What you want isn’t justice. It’s revenge.”
“You should hurt the way I do.”
Tears blurred my vision. My heart battered against my ribs like a trapped bird.
“Pain is a loan shark,” he said, locking those pitch-dark eyes onto mine. “Once you’re in debt, it bleeds you to the marrow. I’m still paying mine.”
He stood before me like a shadow, radiating a merciless calm.
I knew that look. I’d seen it the night everything broke.
I’d always felt like a stranger among the living. But here, across from him—
No. Not now. Focus.
“While I endured that pain, you enjoyed it. Some sick pleasure.”
“Did I?” His voice rasped through the room.
My heart still whispered his name.
A traitor—in love with her executioner.
Worse—I knew he could see it.
I straightened. Drew a deep breath. The sandalwood scent saturating the air scorched my throat.
He stepped closer. Stopped right in front of me.
I didn’t think. I couldn’t. I’d survived the white walls of my captivity—now, control was mine again. I wouldn’t lose it a second time.
My world narrowed to a single point: making him bleed. The air thickened. I leveled the barrel at his chest. Directly over his heart.
I wasn’t the one who should be afraid anymore.
He was.
My fingers stopped trembling. Only resolve remained.
The metal’s mocking chill froze my blood. I pressed the trigger to its final millimeter.
The world wrapped itself in a vast, dead silence.
I lost control once.
Never again.
They want blood? I’ll give them the crimson they’re starving for.
