No Mercy

_Luca’s POV_

The world didn’t just crash—it folded in on itself.

Metal screamed, the kind of sound that splits straight through bone, as the truck slammed into us from the left. One second, Raphael’s car was in sight.

The next, the entire universe became shattering glass, the whip of a seatbelt against my chest, my skull slamming hard enough into the headrest that stars burst behind my eyes.

We spun over and over.

Tires screeched, grinding rubber against asphalt. The car tipped, swayed, threatened to roll. Matteo cursed, Nico’s guttural shout ripped the air, and I—

I couldn’t breathe.

The scent of gasoline hit first, sharp, acrid, burning. The way it always had.

And right now I wasn’t there anymore.

My vision wasn't of the car but of flames licking through wooden beams, smoke choking the air and skin blistering from heat.

The smell of burning hair. The sting of fire so close it kissed the inside of your lungs.

Suddenly I wasn’t thirty-two years old behind the wheel of a wrecked c