The Bride they burned

"You don't survive a war like this.

You become it."

---

NYRA – KAI'S SAFEHOUSE, 4:19 A.M.

I reloaded the gun.

My palms were steady.

No tremble. No fear.

Only heat—quiet and sharp, like a blade left too long in fire.

Sahir stood across the room, bleeding from his temple. Kai had stitched him up without speaking a word. He was still furious.

> "You kissed me to forget him," Sahir said.

> "I kissed you because I remembered who I was before him," I corrected.

Sahir stepped closer.

> "Then let me remind you of the girl who loved me before she became your ghost."

> "Don't," I whispered.

> "Why not?"

I looked him dead in the eyes.

> "Because if you give me softness now, I'll forget I ever wanted revenge."

---

CELESTE – PRIVATE ROOFTOP, 4:21 A.M.

Kai appeared like smoke beside her.

Gun drawn.

> "You betrayed us," he said.

Celeste didn't flinch. She simply stared at the sunrise.

> "She kissed him," she said, voice hollow. "I watched her kiss him. After everything."

> "You lit the safehouse on fire, Celeste."

> "I would've died in there with her. She didn't ask me to."

Kai stepped closer.

> "You gave her up to Ravian."

> "He promised to leave her alone."

> "You're insane."

> "I'm in love," she whispered. "And love is never sane."

---

LEO – POLICE VAN TRANSFER, 5:02 A.M.

His wrists were cuffed.

His mouth gagged.

Two guards in front. One in back.

He broke the neck of the back one in under seven seconds.

Used his cuffs to choke the next.

Gunfire. Panic. Sirens.

When the van crashed into the railing near the cliff, Leo crawled out—bleeding, half-blind, and laughing.

> "I told them I'd come for her."

He vanished into the fog.

---

AARAV – IN THE DARK ROOM

The woman stood above him again.

Hammer in hand.

Smile too sweet to be real.

> "Last chance," she said. "Tell me how you contacted your mother."

He didn't answer.

She brought the hammer down.

CRACK.

He screamed.

And then bit his tongue until the pain blacked out.

Ravian walked in.

> "That's enough," he said.

> "He's not talking," she pouted.

> "He's her son. He won't break. He'll wait."

Ravian leaned down.

Brushed Aarav's hair back.

> "But what if we make her hear him scream next time?"

---

NYRA – ON THE MOVE, 5:33 A.M.

I didn't tell anyone where I was going.

The coordinates Ravian left in the note were burned into my brain:

> "Come alone. Leave your soul at the gate."

I wore black.

Hair tied.

Gun strapped to my thigh.

He wanted a fragile wife?

He was about to get a goddamn war bride.

---

KAI – SAFEHOUSE, 6:00 A.M.

> "Where is she?" Sahir asked, pacing like a caged animal.

> "Gone," Kai said. "She left this."

A note.

One line.

> "If I don't come back by sunrise, make sure my son never sees what I became."

---

RAVIAN – HIDDEN ESTATE, 6:12 A.M.

She stepped inside.

Alone.

He was waiting—flanked by guards, shadowed by his old friend Meher, and framed by a wall of monitors all showing Aarav.

> "You came," Ravian said.

> "I always do. Like a nightmare."

> "Still with the mouth."

> "Still with the monster complex?"

He smirked.

> "Let's talk like civil corpses."

---

TO BE CONTINUED…