Prologue

The rain came down in sheets, turning the city into a blur of steel and shadow. From the rooftop, Riven could see the neon lights flicker across the wet streets below—a perfect night for disappearing and hiding.

His earpiece crackled.

"Target confirmed. Eliminate and extract."

He didn't need the reminder. Orders were all he had ever known.

Across the alley, a figure emerged through the darkness. Black coat. Confident stride. A ghost he'd been chasing for months and unknowingly became the other part of his soul was standing right in front of him.

Kael.

The operation was supposed to be just like any other mission. Chasing the enemy country spy, pinning him down and eliminating him from the face of the earth without anyone finding. But in this mission, he wasn't supposed to smile like that—lazy and all known figure, as if he'd already read Riven's next move. They weren't supposed to whisper promises in the dark, embracing each other to comfort themselves under the blanket or make a man question which side of the line he stood on either sexually or in his responsibilities and duties.

Tonight, none of it mattered.

Their guns were raised at the same time.

Their eyes locked. Both were prepared to sacrifice themselves for each other.

"Do it," Kael said, the voice almost amused, almost broken.

But only a single shot split the air. Kael betrayed. He didn't fire. Rather he couldn't.

And somewhere between the sound of the gunfire and the shattering of glass, Riven realized two things:

He had lost the game. The game of love, life.

And he had just killed the only person who had ever made him want to win it.

He then raised his right hand and pointed the gun in his temple. He had such a pleasant smile and a calm expression... Such a serene scene.

There was no more meaning for him to continue. He completed his mission and now he needs to complete his only last wish.

The echo of the second shot hung in the air longer than it should have, as if the city itself refused to swallow it. For a heartbeat, all was still—the rain falling in endless sheets, steam rising from the rooftops, neon bleeding across shattered glass.

Riven’s body crumpled beside Kael’s, two shadows tangled in the downpour. The world kept moving—sirens somewhere in the distance, footsteps rushing below—but up here, on this rooftop, time fractured.

His gun slipped from his hand, clattering against the concrete. His blood spread quickly, mingling with Kael’s until the rain washed them into one stream, indistinguishable.

This time Riven didn’t feel like a weapon. He felt human. Weak. Broken.

And yet—peaceful.

As his vision blurred, a face leaned in through the haze of rain and neon. Not Kael’s. Someone else. A figure cloaked in black, features hidden, eyes burning with an otherworldly recognition.

The stranger knelt between their bodies, fingers brushing over the mingled blood as though tracing the outline of a forgotten story.

“Again,” the figure whispered, voice low and ancient. “Always again.”

Riven’s breath rattled out of his chest, and in that final moment he understood—this was not an ending. It was a cycle. A curse.

Darkness claimed him, but his last thought was not of death. It was of Kael’s smile, the one that had undone him more completely than any bullet ever could.

And as the rain drowned the rooftop in sorrow, the city wailed with him.

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