The candlelight flickered violently as if recoiling from the presence that stepped out of the shadows. The tall figure removed their hood slowly, deliberately, and Ava’s world shifted.

Her voice caught in her throat.
“...Luca?”

His name tasted like betrayal and longing all at once — a ghost from her past wearing the same face but cloaked in a new, dangerous aura. He had changed. Sharper jawline. Colder eyes. And yet, something vulnerable still flickered beneath the surface.

“I heard the wolves are circling you again,” Luca said quietly, his voice laced with a mixture of pity and warning. “Didn’t take long.”

Noah stepped forward immediately, positioning himself between them. “You should leave. Now.”

But Luca didn’t flinch. He kept his gaze locked on Ava.
“I never left,” he whispered. “Not really.”

Ava's mind reeled. The man who vanished without a trace after the fire—the one she mourned, the one whose betrayal had shattered her—was now standing just inches away. And he knew something. She could see it in his eyes.

“What do you want?” she asked, forcing steel into her voice.

Luca’s smile was sad. “To warn you. The people hunting you... they don’t want answers. They want blood. And they won’t stop until the last thread of your past is cut.”

The room seemed to close in. The flames hissed low in the hearth, casting shadows that twisted across the walls like serpents.

Noah’s voice was a cold blade. “Why now? Why come crawling back after all this time?”

Luca’s eyes flared with anger. “Because I thought disappearing would keep her safe. I was wrong.”

Ava’s heart thudded violently in her chest. She didn’t know what to believe. Two men. One guarded her with everything he had. The other had once held her heart — and left it broken in the ruins of a lie.

She turned away from both of them, trying to breathe through the storm crashing inside her.

The truth was coming. It always did.

And when it did…
Someone wasn’t going to make it out alive.

To be continued...