The city had turned into a living, breathing inferno. Smoke coiled into the sky like fingers reaching for vengeance, sirens wailed as chaos ruled the streets, and lights flickered in shattered skyscrapers. But amidst the fire and ruin, Aria moved like a shadow: silent, lethal, unstoppable.
She stood on the rooftop overlooking one of Sebastian's key offices, the glass façade reflecting the crimson and orange of the fires below. Her pulse was steady now, the adrenaline still pounding, but tempered by focus. She wasn't afraid anymore, fear had been burned away in the streets yesterday. What remained was something far more dangerous: control.
Lorenzo stood beside her, close enough that she could feel the heat radiating from his body. He adjusted the strap of his pistol, eyes scanning the streets below with lethal precision.
"You ready?" he asked, voice low, smooth, almost intimate in the tense night.
Aria's lips pressed together. "I was born ready."
