The world went white with fire.
Bullets raked the sand, sparks ricocheting off steel. The convoy was no longer a line of armored vehicles—it was a funeral pyre waiting to swallow us all.
Leo shoved me behind a half-flipped jeep just as an RPG screamed across the dunes. The explosion lifted the ground under us, slamming me hard into the sand. My ears rang, my ribs burned, and when I blinked, the world spun like a broken compass.
But Leo was already moving. Always moving. Always two steps ahead. His voice cut through the smoke. "Zara—this is it. We split. You take the east ridge. I'll cover the rear."
"No." My throat was raw, my pulse a drumbeat. "I'm not leaving you."
He gave me that half-smile, the one that made me want to shoot him and kiss him at the same time. "That's the point. You leave, I stay. That's how you survive."
I gritted my teeth, yanked my pistol free, and shoved it against his chest—not to kill him, but to stop him. "Don't you dare pull the martyr act with me, Leo. You die, I die. That's the deal."
The air ripped apart with another barrage. A Humvee caught fire, flipping in a storm of sparks. Screams echoed across the desert—our enemies, not our own. For once, I didn't feel guilty.
Leo swore under his breath. He knew I wasn't bluffing. "You're insane."
"Yeah," I panted, firing two rounds at a shadow scaling the ridge. The body dropped like a rag doll. "But I'm your kind of insane."
We fought like a storm. Side by side, back to back, our weapons sang. Every time I ducked, Leo's rifle cleared the path. Every time he faltered, I cut down the threat. It wasn't a partnership anymore. It was survival sewn into our bones.
"Three left!" I shouted.
"Make that two!" he barked, dropping another with a clean headshot.
The last one came screaming at us, knife in hand. Leo went for his sidearm—empty. I didn't think, didn't breathe. I slammed into the attacker, teeth gritted, knife skimming past my throat. Sand filled my mouth as we grappled.
Then—bang. Leo's shot. The body went limp on top of me.
I shoved it off and glared up at him. "Took you long enough."
He offered me a hand, smirk cutting through the smoke.
"What would you do without me?"
"Probably live longer."
And then—silence. The battlefield emptied like someone had pulled the plug. Smoke curled upward. Flames licked the wreckage. But no more gunfire. No more shadows. Just the two of us, breathing like hunted animals.
"Why did it stop?" I whispered.
Leo's expression hardened. He scanned the ridges, his jaw flexing. "Because someone wanted it to stop."
My stomach dropped. The air shifted. And in the corner of the dune, silhouetted against the flames—Aria.
Her dress was untouched by dust, her heels sinking neatly into the sand. She walked as if she were stepping onto a runway, not a battlefield. And her smile… her smile was poison wrapped in silk.
"Bravo," she purred, her voice carrying across the flames. "My two favorite weapons—still refusing to kill each other."
Leo raised his gun instantly, but she didn't flinch. Her eyes flicked to me, sharp and knowing. "Zara, darling, you really do make things complicated."
"Aria," I hissed, every muscle in my body coiled. "You did this."
"Of course I did." She tilted her head, mocking innocence. "Chaos is the best currency in this city. And tonight, I'm rich."
Leo's trigger finger twitched, but I grabbed his arm. "Don't. She wants you to shoot."
Aria's laughter sliced the night. "Smart girl. See, Leo, that's why I like her. She thinks like me."
I tightened my grip on my gun. My heart pounded. The ambush wasn't the end. It was the beginning.
"Leo," I whispered, not taking my eyes off Aria.
"Yeah?"
"Please tell me you have a plan."
He smirked. "Always." But in his eyes, I saw the truth—he had none. And for the first time, I realized: the real war hadn't even started yet.