LOGINThe next morning felt strangely normal.Not fully normal, obviously. My life was still a complete disaster, but for the first time in days, things felt quieter. Less heavy.I woke up to Bella yelling from the kitchen.“Elias! If you don’t wake up now I’m eating your share!”I groaned into my pillow. “You’re evil.”“And hungry!”I dragged myself out of bed slowly, still half asleep. The apartment smelled like toast and coffee already. Bella was definitely awake-awake.I grabbed my towel and headed to the bathroom while hearing her loudly singing some random song completely off-key.“Please stop singing,” I shouted.“I sound amazing!”“You sound sick!”Her offended gasp made me laugh quietly.I turned the shower on and stood under the water for a while, letting the warmth wake me up properly. Honestly, it felt nice focusing on something simple again.School.Breakfast. Getting ready. Normal things. Not gangs. Not secrets.Not Nikolai’s intense staring problem.Definitely not Kai confess
I didn’t stop running until I reached the apartment.By the time I got upstairs my chest was burning, my thoughts a complete mess. I pushed the door open so fast Bella barely had time to move aside before I walked straight past her.“Elias—”I ignored her.I went straight into my room and locked the door behind me.Then I slid down slowly against it.Silence.Real silence this time.No Nikolai staring at me like he knew things I didn’t.No Kai confessing feelings while casually admitting he was a gang leader.No Vane standing there looking guilty after lying to me for years.Just me.And my thoughts.Which honestly felt worse.I dropped my head against the door and closed my eyes tightly.How did my life even get here?A few weeks ago the biggest thing stressing me was school drama, assignments, Bella fighting with Lisa every other day, Riley gossiping too much, figuring out feelings I barely understood.Now suddenly everybody around me belonged to some dangerous organization connecte
Nobody spoke after that.The street suddenly felt too small for all of us standing there. Cars passed behind us, people laughed somewhere nearby, but everything around me sounded distant now.Bella looked between everyone slowly, her iced coffee still in her hand. “Okay… what the hell is going on?”I looked straight at Vane. “You said they were after me.”His face tightened immediately.That alone told me enough.“The organization my father worked for…” he started carefully, “they’ve been looking for you for years.”I frowned hard. “Looking for me why?”“Because of who your father was. Because of what he knew.”I stared at him blankly.“No,” I muttered. “No, this is crazy.”“I wanted to keep you away from it,” Vane said quietly.Something clicked in my head then.All the weird rules.The protection.The constant watching.The lies.“That’s why you were always hovering around me?” I asked.He nodded slowly.Then I looked at him properly and something else hit me.“But somewhere along t
Nobody spoke for a few seconds after that.The street suddenly felt too small, too crowded, too loud even though nobody around us seemed to notice the tension standing there ready to explode.I looked between Kai and Nikolai and immediately regretted it.Kai looked protective. Nikolai looked dangerous.And Vane looked like he wanted to disappear completely.Great.“Can somebody explain why my life feels like a badly written drama?” I muttered.Bella would have laughed at that.Unfortunately, Bella was not here to rescue me with jokes.Kai’s eyes stayed on Nikolai. “You keep showing up everywhere.”“And you keep standing where you don’t belong,” Nikolai replied smoothly.Kai scoffed. “You talk like you own people.”“I talk like someone who understands consequences.”The moment he said that, something shifted in Vane’s expression.Subtle.But I noticed.And apparently Nikolai noticed too because his eyes flicked briefly toward Vane before returning to Kai.That tiny glance made my stoma
I didn’t process the kiss at first.It happened too suddenly, too close, too quiet for my brain to immediately label it as real. One second Kai was standing in front of me, the next his lips were on mine, steady and certain in a way that made everything around us fade for a second.My body froze completely.Not because I wanted to pull away.Because I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with it.When he finally pulled back, he stayed close enough that I could still feel him. His eyes searched mine like he was waiting for a reaction that would decide everything.“I like you,” Kai said.The words didn’t sink in immediately.They just hovered in the space between us, heavy and impossible to ignore.I blinked at him, my mind struggling to catch up. “You what?”Kai exhaled slowly, like he had been holding it in for too long. “I like you, Elias. I have for a while.”I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.I wasn’t prepared for that.Not here. Not like this. Not when my life already felt
The apartment felt too quiet after everything that happened.Not peaceful quiet. More like the kind that makes you aware of every small sound, every movement, every thought you’ve been avoiding.Bella was still on the couch, legs folded under her, laughing softly to herself like she couldn’t believe she actually hit Nikolai with a pillow and survived.“I still think that was my best moment,” she said.“You’re going to get us in trouble one day,” I replied, rubbing my face.“Worth it,” she said without hesitation.I sighed and walked into the kitchen, needing something to do with my hands. The coffee machine clicked softly as I stared at nothing in particular.My phone buzzed on the counter.I already knew before I looked.Nikolai.Nikolai: We need to talk. Alone.I stared at it for a moment, then locked the screen without replying.Bella leaned over from the couch. “Let me guess.”I didn’t answer.“That man is persistent,” she added.“He doesn’t like being ignored,” I said.“And do yo
I’ve been staring at my phone screen for the last twenty minutes like it owes me money.No call from Elias.No text.Nothing.He’d promised he’d call once he finished unpacking. That was two hours ago. I kept refreshing the messages app, then locking the screen, then unlocking it again like the not
The Lisbon apartment had one good feature: the balcony overlooked a narrow street where people actually lived. Not tourists. Not expats. Real people—old women hanging laundry at dawn, kids kicking a deflated soccer ball until it rolled into the gutter, a guy in a stained apron smoking while he swep
I didn’t know how I was feeling.One minute I was driving back home to my parents like any normal Sunday, the radio humming quietly in the background, the late afternoon sun casting long golden streaks across the highway. My parents had specifically told me to bring Lisa home. They wante
Elias pushed the door shut behind him again.The soft click echoed through the quiet room.Nikolai hadn’t moved far from where he stood earlier, but the moment he saw Elias walk back in, something in his expression shifted. The calm amusement was still there… but now there was s







