The First Warning: Stay Away from Her

Artemis Caspian’s Private Office | Midnight

The storm outside had turned the night into a fierce orchestra of thunder and shadows. Rain

lashed against the mansion’s glass walls, but inside the office, the silence was heavier than

the sky.

Artemis sat in his leather chair, his eyes blankly staring at the CCTV feed flickering across

multiple screens. One of them showed the east terrace—the place where he’d kissed her.

Nevaeh.

His Nevaeh.

The girl from his nightmares, his dreams, his buried heart.

His trembling hand reached for the crystal glass on the table. The whiskey inside barely

burned his throat anymore. Nothing could numb what he felt.

Voice (from behind): “You’re slipping, boss.”

Artemis didn’t turn around. He didn’t need to. That voice belonged to Lucian Drake—his right

hand, his shadow in the underworld.

Lucian stepped forward, adjusting the cuffs of his navy suit. “You kissed her.”

Artemis: “You were watching.”

Lucian shrugged. “We watch everything. Especially when it’s about you.”

He leaned against the desk casually. “You made a vow to keep her safe. That didn’t include

dragging her into this hellhole.”

Artemis’s jaw clenched. “I am keeping her safe.”

Lucian smirked darkly. “Are you? Or are you marking her as a target?”

The silence that followed was lethal.

Artemis: “Anyone who touches her dies.”

Lucian: “Even if it’s him?”

Artemis’s body went still.

Lucian continued, his voice lower now. “There’s chatter in the east circles. Someone spotted

a man matching his profile near your last property site. Clean-cut. Confident. Goes by Rafael

Voss now.”

Artemis stood abruptly, knocking the glass over. The amber liquid spilled across the desk like

spilled secrets.

Artemis (coldly): “He’s back?”

Lucian: “Looks like it. And he asked about a girl with cinnamon eyes.”

Artemis’s face darkened. “He has no right to say her name.”

Lucian hesitated. “She doesn’t know who he is, does she?”

Artemis: “She doesn’t even remember him.”

Lucian: “But he remembers her. And worse… he remembers you.”

Scene: Nevaeh’s Bedroom | Early Morning

Nevaeh tossed in bed, restless. The storm had passed, but her heart hadn’t stopped

thundering since Artemis kissed her.

She touched her lips softly, as if to memorize the way he had owned her mouth—desperate,

gentle, broken.

She had felt his walls shake. His pain speak. And for the first time, he hadn’t hidden.

Yet now… nothing. No message. No visit. No explanation.

Nevaeh sat up and threw the blanket aside. She needed air.

She walked toward the balcony in her nightdress and shawl. The dawn light had begun to

pour through the misty sky. She hugged herself as the cold breeze touched her skin.

And then she saw it.

A single red rose.

Placed neatly on the balcony rail.

No card. No note.

Just the rose… and a black ribbon tied around its stem.

A strange chill ran down her spine.

She picked it up, staring at it in confusion. She hadn’t told anyone she loved roses. Except—

Rafael.

Her childhood neighbor. Her first crush before Arsalan. The boy who always picked roses for

her during spring in the orphanage courtyard.

Her fingers trembled.

Nevaeh (softly): “It can’t be…”

Scene: Caspian Mansion | Hallway | Minutes Later

Nevaeh rushed through the hallway in her slippers, holding the rose tightly. She needed to

talk to Artemis. Ask him if he left it. If he remembered Rafael too.

She turned the corner—and collided straight into him.

Artemis caught her before she fell, his strong arms wrapping around her waist.

Artemis: “Where are you running?”

Her eyes widened. “You—”

Then she looked down at his hand. There was blood on his knuckles.

Her breath hitched.

Nevaeh: “You’re hurt.”

Artemis (calmly): “Not my blood.”

She stared at him in shock. But he said nothing more. Instead, his eyes locked on the rose in

her hand.

And everything changed.

His expression turned stone cold.

Artemis (voice like ice): “Where did you get that?”

Nevaeh hesitated. “It was on my balcony. I thought you—”

Before she could finish, Artemis snatched the rose from her hand and crushed it between his

fingers. Thorns bit into his skin, blood dripping silently onto the floor.

Nevaeh: “Artemis!”

Artemis (dangerously): “Don’t ever touch anything that isn’t from me.”

Nevaeh: “I didn’t know! I thought it was a gift!”

Artemis (low growl): “He’s watching you.”

Nevaeh’s heart stopped. “Who?”

He looked at her with a terrifying possessiveness in his eyes.

Artemis: “The man who tried to take you from me once. He’s back.”

She stepped back, scared not of him—but of the storm in his soul.

Nevaeh: “You’re scaring me.”

His voice cracked. Just a little. “Good. You need to be scared.”

He took her face in his bloody hand, gently now, despite the rage in him.

Artemis: “Because if he touches you again… I’ll become the monster they all say I am.”

Tears spilled from her eyes. “Artemis…”

He leaned down, his forehead resting against hers.

Artemis: “I kissed you last night. And I regret it.”

Her breath hitched.

Artemis: “Not because I didn’t want to. But because now he knows how much you mean to

me.”

He stepped back, slowly releasing her.

Artemis: “From now on, Nevaeh… you don’t go anywhere without my permission. You don’t

open your balcony. You don’t walk alone. You stay inside this mansion.”

She wanted to protest—but the way he said it, the way his voice shook with fury and fear—it

made her stop.

Nevaeh: “What are you going to do?”

His eyes darkened like a brewing storm.

Artemis: “Warn him once. Only once.”

Scene: Underground Fight Club | Nightfall

A man stood in the center of a blood-stained ring, his grin cocky, his knuckles wrapped.

Rafael Voss.

The crowd roared.

He turned slightly as a man approached him from the shadows. Lucian.

Lucian held out a sealed envelope with Artemis’s insignia on it.

Rafael took it, opened it slowly.

Inside was a photo.

Nevaeh.

And beneath it, a message written in elegant, deadly handwriting:

“She’s mine. Touch her again, and I’ll return your heart in a glass box. – A.C.”

Rafael chuckled softly.

Rafael: “Game on, Arsalan. Let’s see how much she remembers.”

💔 End of Episode 5

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