The world outside was quieter than it should have been.
Lucian didn't trust quiet.
The abandoned grocery mart stood at the end of the street like a shadowed mouth. Its doors had long been torn off, and what was left of its windows shimmered faintly with tripwire sensors.
Lucian crouched low, knife drawn, scanning for signs of movement. The last thing he needed was a Shocher's ambush.
He slipped inside.
The shelves were half-melted, twisted by the bombings from last fall. A few rusted cans still sat on a toppled rack, but he knew better than to go for them. They were bait. Obvious. Too perfect.
The Shochers were good at that.
He moved past them, weaving deeper into the wreckage, steps light. His breathing was steady. Focused then he heard a click.
He stopped rapidly, foot rooted to the ground as he stares at the direction the sound came from .
Then beneath his boot, something shifted. "No..." he shouted but it was too late.
The blast didn't explode outward instead,it collapsed inward, sucking the air from the room in one terrible rush. Gravity flipped, twisted. The floor gave out.
Lucian fell. And he felt White-hot, tearing pain.He landed hard, dust and glass slicing across his back as the floor crumbled beneath him, dropping him into a hidden sublevel he didn't know existed.
His arm screamed when he moved it. Dislocated. Maybe fractured.
He groaned, rolling over.
Then he heard a voice.
"Well," it said, smooth as silk over steel, "you're not dead. That's... inconvenient but not surprised else it would have been too easy."
Lucian blinked through the haze.
Marinette stood at the edge of the pit, one boot on the ledge, sword at her hip. Her braid draped down like a red rope, catching the light like flame.
"I was hoping for more of a splat," she added, kneeling gracefully beside the hole.
Lucian sat up slowly, knife still in his hand, though it shook now.
"You tracked Kia," he said. His voice was hoarse.
She smirked. "He wasn't even a challenge. You, though, you've been trouble since day one."
She dropped into the pit like a cat. Silent, controlled.
Lucian scrambled to his feet, biting down a yell as his injured arm screamed again. His vision blurred.
Marinette drew her blade.
"Don't bother running," she said. "This place is locked tighter than your little boyfriend's mouth."
Lucian didn't respond.He just stared.
His hands lit up. Not bright this time not blue like with Kia. This light was deep amber veins under his skin, pulsing slow, dark.
Marinette noticed. "Oh," she breathed, slowing. "So it's true."
She looked… fascinated.
"Is that the bloodline? The thing they locked away inside your family tree? The curse?" She stepped closer, circling him.
Lucian's pulse throbbed in his ears.
He didn't know what was happening. He just knew that the power was awakingen this time with brute force like it was angry.
"You don't even know what you're carrying," Marinette whispered, eyes wide now. "That's what makes you dangerous."
Lucian lifted his hand impulsively then something lashed out.
A whip of red-gold energy cracked through the air, striking the wall behind her with a BOOM that sent rock flying. Marinette ducked and rolled with inhuman speed, slicing through the air where his head had just been.
He dropped, spinning low, kicking her knee. She hissed but didn't fall.
"Nice," she muttered. "But sloppy."
Another strike this time, she cut him.
His shoulder split open, heat pouring out with the blood. But it wasn't normal blood.
It glowed. Like molten sun.
Marinette paused, staring at it. "That shouldn't be possible."
Lucian staggered back, gripping the wall. "Yeah? Well I shouldn't be alive either."
He clenched his jaw and let go.
Let the power take over.His eyes went white.
For one terrifying moment, the pit was alive with light.
Everything flickered reality was bending. Time slowed.
Marinette's sword was mid-swing when she froze, suspended like a puppet with her strings tangled.
Lucian moved forward, almost floating.
He reached for her.
And just as his fingers brushed her collar—he snapped back.
The energy collapsed. He dropped like a stone, hitting the ground hard.
Marinette staggered back, coughing violently.
She stared at him like she'd seen a god.
"What the hell are you?" she hissed, backing away.
Lucian coughed, blood on his lips. "Someone you should run from."
But she didn't.She looked delighted.
And then she was gone.
She vanished with a flicker of red light, like a flare dying in the dark.
Hours passed.Lucian finally pulled himself out of the pit, bleeding, half-limping. He followed his own blood trail back to the safehouse, collapsing just outside the door.
Jace yanked it open.
"Shit, Lucian—!"
Kia was up, too fast for someone barely healed. "Get him inside—NOW."
They dragged him in.
Lucian's eyes were open but unfocused.
"She knows," he muttered. "She knows now."
"Who?" Jace asked, panic rising.
"That female assassin.She saw it."
He looked at his hand,still flickering faintly with that unnatural amber.
"I lost control."
Kia knelt beside him, gripping his face. "Hey. Hey. You didn't lose anything. You came back. That's what matters."
Lucian's breathing slowed.
Then he looked at Kia and whispered."She said something about my bloodline. That it's... cursed."
Jace froze.Kia's hands trembled.
"…We need to talk," Jace said finally. "About your mother and your father, your real family. And why the Shochers want you dead so bad."