The rain wouldn't stop.
Elias stood atop a high-rise, his coat whipping in the wind. Down below, the city crawled with life—oblivious to the war being waged in its underbelly. His breath fogged in the air as he reviewed the new target's dossier.
A woman.
Civilian. No combat record. No connection to Obsidian.
So why was she being hunted?
He frowned at the photo paper-clipped to the file. A woman with tired eyes and defiant posture. Her name was Selene Hart. A schoolteacher. Age 37. Divorced. Nothing about her screamed threat… except that the Order wanted her dead.
That alone was enough to make Elias suspicious.
He snapped the folder shut and slipped it into his coat. "No one innocent dies," he muttered, leaping off the rooftop and vanishing into the shadows.
Later that night – Downtown alley
Selene Hart was not used to being followed—but she felt it. Every step, every glance over her shoulder. The streets felt wrong tonight. Quieter. Heavier.
She clutched her coat tighter and turned into an alley, trying to take a shortcut home.
Bad idea.
Two men stepped into view. Armed. Grinning.
Her breath hitched.
"No screaming, lady," one of them sneered, raising a silenced pistol.
But they never got the chance to fire.
Elias dropped from above.
The first man's wrist was shattered before he even saw the shadow. The second was slammed into a wall with enough force to knock him out cold. The silenced pistol clattered to the ground.
Selene backed against the wall, wide-eyed.
Elias turned to her, his face half-lit by a flickering streetlamp. "Are you hurt?"
She blinked, stunned. "W-Who… who are you?"
He didn't answer. Instead, he picked up the file that had fallen from one of the men's pockets—the same file he'd seen earlier.
Selene Hart. Terminate.
He looked at her again. Something in her expression—raw fear, stubbornness, something human—made him freeze.
She reminded him of someone.
Or maybe, she reminded him of what he used to be.
"Go home," Elias said. "And stay off the grid."
"What the hell is going on? Who are you?" she demanded.
But he was already gone.
Elsewhere
High above in a glass tower, Seraphina stared at a monitor.
She had watched it all.
The way Elias had moved. The way he had looked at that woman.
Her lips parted, something unreadable crossing her face.
Not jealousy.
Not yet.
But something had shifted.