Ari:
I was already bleeding by the time they called his name.
My lip split somewhere in the second round, and the skin along my knuckles peeled raw from deflecting too many blades not meant to be parried with bare hands. It didn’t matter. None of it mattered—not compared to what was coming.
Lucian stepped into the ring like a shadow torn from the bones of night. Silent. Controlled. Dangerous in that still way that made the air feel thinner just because he was there.
I hadn’t looked him in the eye in weeks. Not since that night in the woods.
But now—now I didn’t have a choice.
He faced me without flinching.
The murmurs in the training hall died off as he drew his weapon. He didn’t say a word. Didn’t offer a nod, smirk, or taunt. Just that silence—the kind that rang in the ears long after it passed. And gods help me, I felt it like a scream.
I fell in love with the sound of him before I even realized it—the way his silence howled louder than God's, the way he looked at me like I was the
