The warehouse smelled of oil and rust, its silence broken only by the distant drip of water from a leaking pipe. Enzo stood in the center, his fists clenched, his heart pounding with a mix of dread and anger. Selene circled him like a predator, her boots echoing against the concrete floor.
"You want to kill Lucius," she said calmly, her eyes sharp. "But wanting is nothing. Men who only want end up in graves. To destroy him, you must become something that cannot be broken."
Enzo's jaw tightened. "Then tell me what to do."
Selene stopped in front of him, her expression unreadable. With a snap of her fingers, two masked men dragged in a prisoner, gagged and tied to a chair. The man's terrified eyes darted between Enzo and Selene. "Your first lesson is simple," she said coldly. "Kill him."
Enzo froze, his pulse racing. "Who is he?"
"A thief who betrayed us. Nothing more. His life is already forfeit. What matters is what you do with it." Selene tossed a knife at Enzo's feet, the blade clattering across the floor. "Pick it up."
The man's muffled cries grew desperate, his body shaking against the ropes. Enzo's hand trembled as he bent down, fingers closing around the hilt of the knife. His reflection stared back at him in the steel, pale and uncertain.
Selene's voice cut through the silence. "If you cannot take a life tonight, you will never take Lucius's. Decide, Enzo. Are you a grieving boy, or are you the weapon that will one day make the Devil bleed?"
Enzo's breath hitched, the blade cold and heavy in his hand. His heart screamed to drop it, but the fire in his chest burned hotter. He raised the knife, the prisoner thrashing violently in the chair.
The moment lingered like the calm before a storm, and then Enzo's arm moved. The sound of the blade piercing flesh echoed in the warehouse. The prisoner's body went limp, his blood pooling across the floor.
Selene's smile was sharp and cruel. "Good. The boy has taken his first step." She leaned close, her whisper like poison. "Now, Enzo, the real training begins."