Chapter 1. The Last Breath

Linora Vance's POV

"Something's not right with Echelon Nine," I said quietly. "No warrant can get past Echelon Nine. Even the prosecutor chooses to pretend it doesn't exist."

I stared at the screen in front of me—floor plans, security routes, blind spots that are too perfect to be a coincidence.

"This is the last pudding." The voice made me turn my head. Skyden was sitting next to me, placing the small container on my desk.

"Argh! Thanks! I owe you one." I groaned, slamming shut the document that had been messing with my brain for the past month.

Skyden smiled brightly—the kind of smile that always managed to lighten the tense atmosphere in the office—then leaned back beside me. "You can pay me back with an americano later," he said, sipping his own coffee.

Typical coffee addict. But I had no right to complain because I was a pudding addict too—and I didn't know when it started, but little habits like this felt… comfortable.

Too comfortable for something that was supposed to be just a work partnership.

I looked away, pretending to focus on the screen.

Maybe after the Raven case is over… I'll tell him everything.

"Are you sure you want to go in there, Vance?" Skyden asked, his eyes shifting to my monitor, filled with building blueprints.

I looked at him steadily. "As long as I'm with you, there's nothing to be afraid of, right?"

Skyden chuckled—a laugh that always made me feel safe. "Of course. I won't let anything happen to you."

"Who gave you permission to dream of sneaking in there?"

Commander Adrian's deep voice interrupted. His face was stiff, his jaw clenched as he looked at the floor plan on the screen.

"Echelon Nine isn't your level," he said sharply. "No disguise can get past it."

"The only way in is to stay as a couple, Commander," Skyden interjected calmly. "The Raven is hiding within those units."

"No." His answer was too quick.

"Too dangerous. Even married couples are under strict surveillance," he continued more quietly, his gaze lingering on the map before he turned away.

Just as I was about to object, his phone in his pocket rang. He was gone less than five minutes, and when he returned, his face bore a new look of anxiety.

"The plan has changed. Forget about Echelon Nine for now. The informant says The Raven will make contact with the remnants of Black Lotus tonight. Noah, find their location!"

"Got it!"

8 p.m. Sector 4 Warehouse.

The smell of rust and the musty night air filled my lungs as we moved through the shadows. I could feel my heart pounding, but Skyden's presence nearby always gave me extra calm.

"Skyden, check the west side," I whispered through the earpiece.

Silence. No reply.

"Skyden? Can you hear me?"

A sudden chill crept up my spine as all I heard was static.

"Skyden? Are you hurt? Answer me! I'm coming—hold on!"

I spun around quickly, intending to look for him, but a cold gun muzzle was already pressed against my temple.

"Put down your gun… or you die right here."

My feet froze. This voice… I knew it better than my own heartbeat. But the tone was different. There was no cheerfulness, no casual tone like when he teased me about coffee or pudding.

I turned slowly, meeting a pair of gray eyes that now felt like ice.

My thoughts suddenly flashed back to a year ago, when we were caught in a firefight on the roof of Sector 2. Back then, Skyden was shot in the shoulder because he pulled me out of the line of fire. He winced in pain, but his hand still held me tight as he whispered, "Don't let go, Vance. I won't let you fall."

He's the only one who's always been there for me. I've always been alone. I spent most of my life in an orphanage until the Vance family adopted me, but even that didn't last long. Divorce… and I was alone again.

Skyden was always on my side. That day, I cried because I felt I owed him my life. That day, I swore I'd do anything to protect him.

But now, the same hand that once pulled me from death… was now in the same position—as if it only needed one pull of the trigger to end it all.

"Sky… what are you doing?" my voice trembled.

He didn't answer. Behind him, a woman stood among the Black Lotus members.

Her hair was long, her face serene—and most painfully, she was wearing the earrings I had once given Skyden.

He said he didn't like wearing accessories. But now… he'd given them to someone else.

They weren't attacking Skyden. Instead, they were standing guard by his side.

Skyden remained silent. He just stared at me as if I were nothing more than an insect he was about to crush underfoot.

There was no hatred in his eyes. That was what hurt the most. If he hated me, at least I'd still be considered human. But Skyden's gaze was empty. To him, I was just another item on a to-do list he needed to cross off.

"You always ruin my plans, Linora," he hissed coldly.

I stared at him, my breath trembling.

"You said you'd protect me…"

For a moment, his expression shifted.

"I never asked you to believe me."

BANG!

Everything happened so fast I didn't have time to process it.

The sound of gunfire, the commotion of people behind me, the clanging of blows, screams… until a buzzing in my ears drowned it all out.

My body jerked forward before collapsing. My breath came in gasps, catching in my throat as it began to fill with iron-tinged fluid. Through my blurred vision, I saw a pair of black boots stepping closer.

The boots he'd once used to hold the door open so I could get out of the elevator first now stood still, waiting for me to stop breathing.

"Breathe, Linora. Just a little longer."

His voice sounded cold and far too calm for someone watching his partner die.

I choked on my own blood. My trembling hands reached for his legs, searching for something to hold on to, searching for even a shred of loyalty that might still remain.

But he didn't move. He just stood there, watching me slowly lose consciousness.

And inside me… something screamed.

Not a sound that could escape this blood-filled throat.

But something deeper—older than trust, sharper than pain.

A fire that refused to die.

Rage.

Pain.

Betrayal.

Everything I've been bottling up, everything I've swallowed alone since I learned that there's not a single place in this world that's truly safe… explodes within the darkness of my own mind.

I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. I couldn't fight back.

But something inside me kept screaming, clawing, refusing to accept this as a foolish end.

We were supposed to be carrying out the ambush together. Skyden was supposed to be the one who pulled me out of danger. It turned out, Skyden was the danger itself.

Was that gunshot wound part of your act too, Sky? The pain in my chest is far sharper than the metal in my throat.

I love him.

And maybe… he's known all along.

I promised I'd confess to him once this mission was over.

It wasn't the bullet that hurt the most.

But the realization that came too late. All that attention. All those little habits—not because I was special… but because I was the easiest target to approach.

"You… traitor," I whispered with my last breath.

Then, everything went dark.

ZAP.

I jolted awake. My heart was pounding wildly, as if I'd just been zapped back to life.

The metallic smell of blood vanished suddenly, replaced by the bitter aroma of coffee and the familiar, masculine scent of sandalwood.

"This is the last pudding; you're always complaining when it runs out," said a voice I recognized all too well.

The sound of plastic scraping against the wooden table made me turn my head. My heart was still pounding like a war drum.

I stared at the table in front of me. Milk pudding. Still cold. Still intact.

And beside me, Skyden Wolfe was sitting, sipping his coffee casually, as if he hadn't just watched me die in that cursed warehouse.

"What's wrong? Are you okay? You look really pale."

For a split second… his voice sounded the same. The tone that used to always calm me down.

My heart clenched, as if my body hadn't had time to catch up with the reality of what had just happened.

I stared at his hands. The same hands that had pointed a gun and taken my life. I felt like I was going to throw up right then and there.

"Don't touch me," I hissed, jerking my chair away from him with a sharp jolt. Cold sweat began to dampen my temples.

I wanted to scream, to grab the collar of his shirt and ask "why?", but my tongue was tied. My body betrayed me; instead of fighting back, I shivered violently like prey trapped by a predator. Every inch of my skin that once felt protected by him now itched and burned, rejecting his presence within a meter of me.

Skyden froze. His eyebrows knitted together, that "caring partner" expression still perfectly fixed on his face. "What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?"

He tried to move closer again, his hand reaching out as if to check my temperature. I jolted awake, my eyes darting wildly across the table—searching for a weapon, searching for an escape, searching for anything that could prove I was no longer in that warehouse.

Then, my gaze landed on the bottom corner of the monitor.

My spinning world suddenly came to a painful stop. I blinked, trying to clear my blurred vision from the tears that were about to spill. There, in the corner of the static digital calendar, the numbers stared back at me cruelly.

March 30.

My heart, which had been racing wildly, suddenly felt as if it were being squeezed by ice. My body was still shivering, but my focus was now completely locked on that date.

This was the day. The day the Commander ordered the team to conduct an investigation for the operation to capture The Raven group. The day all my ruin began.

It wasn't a dream. I remembered I had been poring over those documents for a full month, and then on the thirtieth day, we raided the warehouse identified as the meeting place for The Raven and the remnants of Black Lotus.

"Linora?" Skyden called my name again, his expression still the same—worried.

If this had happened before my death, I would have been happy to have his attention, but now… I wanted to tear that friendly face apart.

I had to hold on. I had thirty days to turn things around.

Thirty days before this man killed me.