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홈 / Mafia / The Devil's Debt / Chapter Thirty – Fractures in Stillness

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Chapter Thirty – Fractures in Stillness

작가: Tope
last update 최신 업데이트: 2025-08-31 01:54:56

The next morning came quietly.

Ayla woke not to alarms or threats, but to the soft hiss of the espresso machine across the suite. Pale dawn stretched through the windows, painting the skyline in muted silver. For a moment she lay still, her cheek pressed against cool linen, blinking against the light. She was momentarily disoriented, half expecting the echo of chains or the cold weight of restraint. Instead, there was only silence.

Then the fragments of the night before slipped back into place.

Lucian.

He stood in the kitchen alcove, sleeves rolled, every movement efficient, precise. He didn’t glance her way, but she knew he was aware she was awake. He always was.

For a long moment she simply watched him, her breath caught somewhere between comfort and unease. There was something unsettling about seeing him like this—stripped of armor and titles, performing an ordinary task. He handled the cup as though it were a blade, deliberate, careful, but the quiet domesticity of it nearly
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  • The Devil's Debt    Chapter Forty-Four – The Flame She Ignited

    Lucian sat motionless for a long time, her words echoing in the air between them like sparks refusing to die.Then let me burn with you…He hadn’t expected her to say it. In truth, he hadn’t believed anyone would ever dare. To stand before him—before the weight of his sins, the empire of shadows he commanded—and choose the fire willingly. Yet here she was, refusing to flinch, refusing to run, her gaze locked on his as though she had already accepted the ruin that came with loving him.And against all logic, against the steel walls he had spent years building, something inside him cracked.A faint, almost disbelieving smile tugged at his mouth. It was small, fleeting, but real—the kind of smile that hadn’t touched his face in years. It startled even him.Before Ayla could breathe another word, his hand came up, threading into her hair, pulling her closer. His lips crashed onto hers, rough at first—hungry, desperate, like a drowning man clawing at air. She gasped against him, startled,

  • The Devil's Debt    Chapter Forty-Three – The Ashes He Carried

    Lucian sat slouched against the headboard, his palms dragging across his face as if he could wipe away the ghosts that clawed at him. His breathing had steadied, but faint tremors still lingered in his shoulders, betraying the storm raging behind the mask he wore.Ayla didn’t move for a while. She stayed there, close, her knees pressed into the rug and her hands still hovering near his. She studied him—this man who had built his name out of stone and shadow, who commanded entire cities with a word—reduced now to shivering silence, trapped in memories he couldn’t escape.Finally, when she realized he was burning with heat that had nothing to do with panic, she slipped away just long enough to wet a towel with warm water. The penthouse was hushed, its silence broken only by the faint hum of the storm fading outside and the drip of water into a porcelain basin.She came back quietly, pressing the cloth to his forehead. His skin was hot under her touch, fever chasing through him, sweat sl

  • The Devil's Debt    Chapter Forty-Two – Between Dawn and Ruin

    Lucian woke to silence.The storm had passed, leaving the world rinsed clean, but inside the room the air still smelled faintly of antiseptic and rain. His body felt heavy, stitched together by pain, but the first thing his eyes found wasn’t the bandage or the wound.It was her.Ayla sat at the edge of the bed, her head bowed against the mattress, hair spilling like ink across her cheek. Her arm was draped near his side, her fingers curled as though she had been holding onto him even in sleep. She hadn’t changed out of her wet clothes, hadn’t shifted once. She had kept vigil. All night.Lucian’s lips curved faintly, a smile no one else in the world would have ever believed possible.Carefully—so carefully—he shifted his weight and reached for her. His arm slid beneath her shoulders, lifting her just enough to rest her head properly on the pillow beside him. She murmured softly but didn’t wake, exhaustion anchoring her too deeply. For a long moment, he just looked at her. At the way wo

  • The Devil's Debt    Chapter Forty-One – Ashes on Skin

    The rain followed them all the way to the car.It beat against the hood in relentless sheets, drumming like a thousand frantic heartbeats. Ayla staggered beneath Lucian’s weight, her shoulder wedged beneath his arm, the slick fabric of his suit heavy with blood. Every step was agony—for him, for her—but she refused to falter. If he collapsed now, she wasn’t sure she could get him back up.Lucian’s jaw was set in stone, his face pale under the stormlight, black eyes fixed ahead as if sheer willpower alone held him upright. But Ayla felt the tremor in his body, the weakening pull of gravity dragging him down. Her grip tightened around his waist, teeth clenched.“Just a little further,” she whispered, her voice a rasp against the storm.By the time they reached the waiting car in the shadowed lot, Ayla was shaking from exertion. The driver yanked the back door open, and Lucian collapsed into the seat with a hiss that cut through the rain. Ayla slid in after him, her hands instantly findi

  • The Devil's Debt    Chapter Forty – Blood in the Rain

    The crack of a gunshot split the night.Ayla flinched, bracing for the explosion of pain she was certain would follow. Her chest tightened, breath caught halfway between life and death. But the agony never came.Instead, a body dropped heavily to the dirt in front of her. The guard who had leveled his rifle at her heart convulsed once, eyes wide in shock, before going still. Rain washed across his face, carrying the last trace of warmth from his body into the earth.For a moment, Ayla couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. That shot hadn’t come from him.It had come for him.She turned, disbelieving, scanning the shadows, until her eyes locked onto a figure through the sheets of falling rain.Lucian.He stood a dozen paces away, his silhouette etched in stark relief against the floodlights. The storm drenched him, water streaming from his dark suit, plastering the fabric to his frame. His gun still smoked in his hand, the faint curl of gunpowder twisting into the rain.But it wasn’t his we

  • The Devil's Debt    Chapter Thirty-Nine – The Blue Case

    The call came without warning. Ayla had been pacing, the file still on the bed behind her, when the intercom chimed with a low, curt note. She froze, pulse tightening, and then forced her voice steady. “Yes.” Lucian’s voice cut through, rougher than usual, as though something pressed at the edges of his restraint. “It’s time.” Her chest clenched, but she didn’t flinch. “What’s the mission?” There was the faintest pause, a silence thick enough to press against her ears. Then his words came, measured, deliberate. “You’ll retrieve a case. Blue-proofed. It contains documents that cannot be allowed to leave Veynar’s hands. Do not open it. Do not question it. Bring it back.” Ayla’s fingers curled into her palms. That was all. No explanation. No margin for error. Just the blade, once again, sent to cut. “Understood,” she said, her voice flat. And without another word, she turned. She didn’t look back. Lucian stood at the window of the penthouse long after she had gone, the city str

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