Rain swept across the skyline, streaking the glass of the city’s tallest tower in silver threads. The night was late, long past the hour when power players slept — but Selene D’Arcy wasn’t sleeping. She was being driven through the storm to a place she’d only heard about in whispers.Connor’s penthouse.It was supposed to be a strategy meeting — a review of Titan’s next restructuring phase after Hale’s exposure. But the tone of his message had been different this time. Just Come tonight. Alone.The elevator opened directly into the apartment. No security, no assistant. Just silence, and the low hum of the city below.The place wasn’t what she expected. No trophies. No art meant to impress. The walls were lined with old blueprints, schematics, and maps of trade routes — Titan’s old arteries, drawn by someone who knew them intimately.Connor stood by the window, his reflection merging with the lights outside. No mask tonight — no polished investor charm. He looked tired, sharper, almost

Connor lifted her, holding her against his chest, and carried her upward toward the collapsing world above… step by step, refusing to let her go.The stairwell roared behind him, flames swallowing steel. Concrete dust rained over his shoulders as he pushed forward, jaw clenched so tight it trembled. Kirra’s blood seeped through his shirt, warm at first… then frighteningly cold.“Kirra, stay awake,” he murmured, voice hoarse. “You promised me you’d walk out of this.”Her eyelids fluttered again. “I… didn’t promise. You… ordered…”“Then disobey me,” he snapped, breath breaking. “Just this once.”Her lips moved, barely forming a ghost of a smile before her head fell limp against him.A sound tore from his throat — too raw to be anger, too violent to be grief.He kicked open the emergency exit door.Only to find three Titan security officers blocking the path.“Drop the girl,” the leader barked. “By order of Director Hale—”Connor looked up slowly.And the expression he wore made all thre

The rain hadn’t stopped by the time the early light of dawn started creeping across the city. Connor hadn’t slept at all… he sat beside Kirra the whole night, unmoving, monitoring every flicker of her pulse on the screen.By morning, the safehouse smelled of disinfectant and burnt metal from their ruined equipment. Kirra lay on the bed, eyes closed but no longer pale as death. Her breath came steadier.Connor finally exhaled. Only then did he stand, rolling his shoulders, pulling the blood-stained shirt off and replacing it with a crisp black one Rhea had brought him.He didn’t notice Kirra’s eyes crack open briefly, catching the image of him in the soft morning light.He changed clothes… here? In front of me?Her cheeks warmed before exhaustion dragged her back under.*Selene arrived exactly twenty minutes later — heels clicking sharply against the concrete floor, perfume sharp and expensive, expression already strained by something she wasn’t saying.“Connor.” She stood in the door

Connor returned to the hospital long after midnight, shoulders tense, the storm still clinging to him even though the rain outside had stopped hours ago. Kirra sensed it the moment he entered the dimly lit room. He had that look again… the one he wore only when he was hiding something sharp behind his eyes.But the first person he met there wasn't Kirra at all…*****Selene D’Arcy was standing barefoot in her penthouse, trembling.She had called him only once in the years he had known her voice, and tonight it was not the voice of the Titan Vice President or the woman who held boardrooms in the palm of her hand, it was the voice of someone who had just realized her world was not as secure as she believed.“There was a break-in,” she said the moment he arrived, her fingers clutching the silk robe at her collarbone. “Nothing stolen… there were files that had been accessed. And strangely enough, no doors were damaged either. I have no idea how they did it… or why.”She swallowed hard, le

Connor did not speak for a long, terrible moment.Rhea’s voice crackled through the comm line, barely holding together. “Connor… we found the Architect’s next target. It’s you.”The call ended with a sharp click, leaving a silence so heavy it felt like the world had stopped breathing.Kirra stared at him, stunned. For the first time since she had known him, Connor Waratah, the man who stared down collapsing towers and armed security as if they were mere inconveniences, looked genuinely shaken. His expression did not crack, but something in the way he exhaled, too slowly and too steadily, told her he was suppressing the kind of storm that could level entire empires.“I’m the target?” he said finally, voice low, impossibly calm. “When did the Architect become this impatient?”Kirra stepped closer, instinct overriding reason. “Connor. This isn’t… this isn’t an ordinary hit. If Rhea says it—”“I know.” He didn’t look at her. His eyes were on the skyline, on the faint geometric sigil glowi