The rain fell sideways.
Hard enough to sting. Cold enough to burn. The city was an open wound, bleeding neon and betrayal.
Miro stood under the half-collapsed billboard that once advertised Veil Industries. He didn’t flinch when Scarlet approached. He didn’t blink when she raised her blade.
“Where is she?” Scarlet asked.
“Gone,” he whispered. “But she left something for you.”
He opened his hand.
A ring.
Not just any ring.
Kaydence’s.
Blood dried around the edges.
Scarlet’s heartbeat went still.
“Why are you doing this?”
Miro stared up at her. “Because she chose me. Because you didn’t.”
Hours Earlier
Kaydence stood at the mouth of the shattered cathedral that once served as a Triangle hideout. The Drankworth crest still hung above the pulpit, tarnished and cracked.
Annora waited there.
Clad in black.
Like mourning. Or war.
She didn’t smile when he entered. She just said, “You look tired.”
“You look like a ghost,” he replied.
They circled each other slowly.
“You shouldn’t have come alone,” she said.
“I didn’t.”
Gunfire shattered the stained glass windows.
Scarlet was on the roof with Jasper, giving them ten minutes, max.
Annora’s voice barely trembled. “She sent you to kill me?”
“She sent me to finish it.”
“You still think I betrayed you?”
Kaydence didn’t answer.
Because the truth was worse than betrayal.
It was love that didn’t last.
He moved first.
The fight was brutal. Elegant.
Old scars reopened. She knew every weakness. He knew every hesitation.
And in the end, it wasn’t bullets that ended it.
It was Miro.
He appeared behind Annora, silent and barefoot.
With a blade.
She didn’t hear him until it was too late.
He stabbed her through the back. Clean. Deep.
Her eyes met Kaydence’s.
No hate. Just silence.
“I had to,” Miro whispered.
And she fell.
Kaydence caught her before she hit the floor. Her weight was unfamiliar—lighter than memory allowed. Her lips parted, blood-soaked and trembling.
“Kay…”
That was all she said.
Then she was gone.
Jasper’s voice crackled in their comms. “Pull out. You’ve got twenty seconds, max.”
But Kaydence didn’t move. His hand lingered in hers, even as the warmth faded.
Scarlet slid down a support beam from the roof, blood on her gloves, eyes locked on the scene.
“You did what you had to,” she said.
But Kaydence shook his head. “No. I did what I swore I’d never do. I let her die.”
Scarlet knelt over Annora’s body. The blood was still warm.
Miro stood behind her, holding the blade that ended a legacy.
“She was my sister,” he said.
Scarlet turned slowly. “No. She used you.”
He didn’t argue.
Because deep down, he knew it.
Jasper radioed in: “We’ve got movement. Someone’s coming. Big.”
Kaydence crouched beside Scarlet, eyes locked on the door.
“We need to move.”
But Scarlet didn’t.
She reached into Annora’s coat and pulled out a photo.
It was them.
Her. Annora. Kaydence. Laughing.
Before the wars. Before the lies.
Before she became Seina Sallow.
“I hate her,” Scarlet whispered.
Kaydence didn’t speak.
Because hate was easier than grief.
Then, softly, he said, “She was never coming back from this. You knew that.”
Scarlet nodded, eyes burning. “But that doesn’t mean I wanted her dead.”
They split into two teams.
Jasper and Miro took the east. Scarlet and Kaydence moved west.
The moment they reached the bridge, they were ambushed.
Snipers. Traps.
Kaydence covered her while she ran.
One bullet caught his arm. Another grazed her leg.
Scarlet turned back once—and saw Miro behind them.
But he didn’t shoot.
He just watched.
Then vanished again.
A flashbang exploded behind them, sending birds into the stormy sky. Sirens wailed in the distance.
Scarlet reached for Kaydence’s hand, blood dripping from her fingers. “We’re not making it to the docks.”
“I know.”
He pulled her into an alley. They pressed against the wall, breathing in sync.
He touched her face gently. “You okay?”
“No,” she said. “But I will be.”
She kissed him.
Quick. Desperate. Honest.
Then they ran again.
Back at the safehouse, Scarlet found a note in her room.
Written in red ink. No signature.
“You wanted her gone. I gave you that. But don’t mistake this for loyalty. Blood debts run both ways, sister. — M.”
Scarlet burned the note without reading it twice.
But she didn’t sleep that night.
Because Miro had taken a life.
And left behind a war.
And somewhere across the city, someone else was watching.
A woman with cold eyes.
A ring on her finger.
Annora’s engagement ring.
She smiled.
And whispered, “Phase two begins.”