LOGINLilith’s POV The underground warehouse always felt like it existed outside the world.No sunlight reached it. No noise from the city filtered through. Down here, time slowed, stretching and bending around the steady hum of electricity and the occasional metallic clink of tools. The air smelled of oil, steel, and something raw…..something dangerous. It was a place built for speed and secrets.Cassian moved through it like it was an extension of himself.“Come closer,” he said, crouching beside a partially dismantled bike. “You won’t learn anything standing over there.”I hesitated only a second before stepping closer, kneeling beside him. The concrete was cold beneath my palms.“Okay,” I said. “What am I looking at?”He smirked faintly. “Good question.”He tapped a section of the exposed engine. “This is where most riders panic.”“That doesn’t explain anything,” I replied.“It does,” he said calmly. “Because when this overheats or jerks unexpectedly, panic is what kills people. Not th
Lilith’s POVThe morning arrived way too quickly.Sleep barely touched me the night before, and when it did, it came in like restless fragments, half-dreams filled with flashing lights, roaring engines, and Cassian’s voice repeating a single word over and over until it lost all meaning.Mistake.I laid on my bed awake long before dawn, staring at the ceiling, my chest tight with thoughts I refused to finish. By the time I finally forced myself to get out of bed, I felt hollowed out, like something essential had been scooped clean from inside me.Today was the day of the competition.The house was already alive when I went downstairs. Movement echoed through every hallway, footsteps, voices, the clatter of equipment being shifted and checked. The familiar scent of oil and metal lingered in the air, sharp and grounding.I focused on that instead of the knot that was forming in my stomach.Cassian’s presence h
Lilith’s POV The word ‘mistake’ he said to me shook me in ways I couldn't comprehend.It echoed with every breath I took, with every attempt my mind made to rationalize what had just happened. Cassian’s voice, calm, controlled, devastating kept replaying itself no matter how hard I tried to push it away.‘A mistake’.His words made me start to question myselfI leaned on the door as though it would grant me strength to go through the night. I stood there for a moment, my hand still on the handle, my head bowed.I didn’t cry.At least not yet.I crossed the room slowly and sat on the edge of my bed, staring at nothing. The excitement I’d felt only minutes ago, the warmth, the stupid fluttering hope I had not even realized that I had allowed myself to have died all at once, like a candle that's snuffed out without warning.Why would he call it a mistake?Before I could sink too deeply into my thoughts, and probably hug my pillow to console my broken heart. In that moment a soft knock c
Chapter 79Lilith’s POVBefore we could walk down the hallway completely, they caught up to us. Stopping us, still trying to make sense of it all.For a split second when Cassian’s lips met mine, my mind went completely blank. Then my instinct instantly took over. I kissed him back.The realization hit me a heartbeat later, it felt sharp, electric…and the air around us shifted so drastically it felt like the hallway itself had inhaled. My hands lifted without permission, my fingers curling into the fabric of his jacket as if I needed the grounding. Cassian’s grip tightened at my waist, not forceful, but certain. The kiss deepened just enough to erase any doubt, just enough to make everything else fade.The club noise disappeared. The tension. The anger. The twins.It was just us.I felt it…whatever invisible line had existed between us snapping cleanly in that moment. Then Lyra made a sound, sharp and broken.I pulled back instinctively, my breath uneven, my pulse roaring in my ears.
Lilith’s POVBring overwhelmed didn’t even begin to cover it.If someone had asked me, right at that moment, how I felt sitting in a dimly lit VIP room of a packed club with pounding bass vibrating through the walls, I wouldn’t have been able to give a single clear answer. My emotions were stacked on top of one another, tangled and loud, confusion, thrill, anxiety, warmth, disbelief.And right in the middle of all of it were Cassian and Nolan.They were both too close.Not in a suffocating way, never that….but in a way that made my pulse trip over itself. Nolan sat beside me on the curved leather couch, his thigh pressed firmly against mine, one arm lazily draped behind me like it belonged there. Cassian stood just in front of me, leaning back against the table, his attention never straying far for more than a second.It was intense.Nolan kept pressing soft kisses to my temple, my cheek, sometimes just beneath my ear like he was testing my reaction. Every single time, my breath hitch
Cassian’s POVI was stuck between answering the phone, with the whole drama going on right now. I really don't want to stir up any more emotions for her. “You can answer the phone case,” she said, looking at me. “I don't have to, you know,”“No, you don't have to,”I searched her face, looking for any form of doubts, it was only an assured look telling me to go on. The moment I picked up the call, I regretted it.Lyra’s name was still glowing in my mind when her voice slid through the speaker, smooth and far too casual for someone who had just cornered Lilith and tried to dismantle her self-worth.“Cassian,” she said brightly, like we were close friends. “I was wondering when you would answer.”I didn’t bother hiding the edge in my voice. “What the fuck do you want, Lyra?”Lilith stood beside me, arms folded, watching my face closely. Her eyes flicked between me and the phone, alert, cautious. I could practically hear her thoughts screaming don’t lose it.Lyra laughed softly. “Strai







