Hana's heart skipped a beat as the shards of the pendant fell to the floor, scattering like broken promises. The once beautiful, delicate piece of jewelry that had been the center of her thoughts and dreams was now nothing more than fragments fragments that seemed to pulse with an energy of their own, darker than before.
Lucien's hand remained outstretched, holding the pieces, his eyes fixed on her with a chilling sense of finality. The tension in the room became unbearable. It was as if the very air had thickened, closing in on them, suffocating any chance of escape. She could feel the presence of something ancient, something powerful, coiling around her, tightening its grip.
Jisoo moved to take a step forward, but Hana quickly placed a hand on his arm, stopping him. She didn't know what had just happened, but she could feel the weight of it pressing on her. The shattered pendant was more than just a symbol. It was a key to something much larger, something she had yet to fully understand.
Lucien dropped the shards to the ground, his eyes never leaving her face. "You don't understand what you've done, Hana," he said, his voice calm, but there was an edge to it now, a coldness that sent a shiver down her spine. "By holding onto this, you've unleashed something you can't control."
"Unleashed what?" Hana's voice trembled, but she refused to show fear. She wasn't the same girl who had fallen victim to Lucien's manipulation in their past life. She wasn't the same girl who had blindly trusted him. This time, she would stand her ground.
Lucien didn't answer immediately. Instead, he turned and glanced over his shoulder, as though listening to something beyond the room. The silence stretched, thick and uncomfortable.
Then, with an almost imperceptible sigh, he spoke again. "It's already begun."
Hana's eyes narrowed. "What has?"
Lucien's lips curled into a small, satisfied smile. "The awakening. The cycle. Everything is set in motion now. And you... you are the catalyst."
Hana felt a cold rush of dread settle in her chest. What was he talking about? What did he mean by the cycle? The pendant? The pieces of her past were scattered, like pieces of a puzzle, but the picture they formed was still too blurred for her to make sense of.
Jisoo stepped forward, his voice a low growl. "What are you planning, Ricci? You think you can just come in here and...."
"Enough," Lucien interrupted, his tone sharp, slicing through the tension in the room. "You don't get it, do you, Jisoo? This isn't about me, and it's not about you." He turned his gaze back to Hana. "This is about her."
Hana felt a knot tighten in her stomach. There was something dark in Lucien's words, something that made her skin prickle with unease.
"What do you mean?" she asked, trying to steady her voice, but the words felt heavy on her tongue.
Lucien's gaze softened, as though he were seeing her for the first time. "I've waited for this moment for a long time," he murmured, more to himself than to her. "But even I didn't know how powerful this would be. The pendant, the bond we share, it's not just a connection from a past life. It's something much older. Something that has existed long before us."
Hana's head spun as his words hit her like a tidal wave. "Older than us?" she repeated, her heart racing. "What does that even mean?"
Lucien met her gaze, his eyes intense and burning with an emotion she couldn't place. "It means that everything that's happening now, everything that's been happening, has already been written. It was always going to happen this way. We were always going to meet again."
Her pulse quickened as the weight of his words sank in. The cycle. The past. She had thought they could break free of it, but now, with the pendant shattered, everything was shifting. Hana could feel it the faint hum of energy that still lingered in the air, as if the very room had come alive with the echoes of history, of lives long gone.
Jisoo's voice cut through the silence again. "I don't know what game you're playing, Ricci, but we're done here."
Lucien raised a hand, silencing him. "You still don't understand, do you?" he said, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper. "This isn't just a game. This is fate. And it doesn't care what you want."
Hana's breath caught in her throat. "Fate?"
Lucien's smile returned, but it was dark, twisted. "Yes. Fate. You think you're the one who controls your life? That you can just walk away from this? From me?" He shook his head slowly. "I'm afraid you're much more entwined in this than you realize, Hana. Much more than you ever wanted to be."
The room seemed to pulse with energy, the walls closing in, the shadows lengthening. Hana took a step back, her eyes never leaving Lucien's. "I don't care about fate," she said, her voice shaking but firm. "I'll fight whatever this is. Whatever you are."
Lucien's eyes softened slightly, as though he were both amused and disappointed. "You don't have a choice in the matter. But I'm curious, Hana. I've always wondered..." His voice trailed off as he moved closer, each step slow and deliberate, until he was standing right in front of her. "Would you fight for me? For us?"
For a moment, everything seemed to stop. Hana's heart pounded in her chest as she tried to make sense of his words. He couldn't be serious. Not after everything he had done, after everything he had taken from her.
"Never," she whispered, her voice barely audible.
Lucien's eyes darkened, and he turned away, his presence still looming over her like a storm about to break. "We'll see," he said quietly, almost as if to himself. "We'll see."
With that, he turned and walked toward the door, his steps echoing in the silence.
As the door clicked shut behind him, Hana felt a weight lift off her shoulders. But it was quickly replaced by an even greater sense of unease, like the calm before the storm. Jisoo moved toward her, his expression tense. "What the hell was that? Who is he really, Hana?"
Hana couldn't answer. The fragments of the shattered pendant were still lying on the floor, mocking her, whispering of things she couldn't yet understand. The awakening. The cycle. Lucien's words echoed in her mind, and she knew deep down that this was far from over.
The storm had only just begun.