The lights died.
Darkness flooded the apartment like ink spilled across paper.
For a single breath, everything went still.
Then the windows shattered.
Glass exploded inward.
Zayden moved on instinct, throwing his arm up as shards rained across the floor.
A dark figure landed inside the room with impossible silence.
Then another.
And another.
Three hunters.
Their black coats barely stirred as they straightened, faces half-hidden beneath silver masks carved with strange symbols.
Not human.
Not fully.
The air around them felt… empty.
Like standing too close to a grave.
"Stay behind me," Aria said.
Her voice was quiet.
Flat.
But it sliced through the tension like a blade.
Zayden let out a low, humorless laugh.
"I don't take cover."
One of the hunters tilted its head.
Its voice came out distorted, almost metallic.
"Zayden Cross."
A pause.
"Bearer of the Crimson Contract."
The second hunter turned its masked face toward Aria.
"And Aria Nocturne."
The third stepped forward.
"Property of the Order."
The room went cold.
Aria's expression didn't change.
But Zayden saw it.
The faint tightening in her jaw.
The shift in her eyes.
Fury.
"You always did love using the wrong words," she said softly.
The lead hunter raised one gloved hand.
A circle of pale symbols ignited beneath their feet.
A trap.
Aria's gaze sharpened instantly.
"Move!"
Zayden jumped back just as chains of silver light erupted from the floor, lashing upward like living snakes.
One wrapped around his ankle.
Pain tore through him.
Not physical.
Deeper.
Like something was pulling directly at the contract itself.
His breath hitched.
The mark on his hand flared violently.
The hunters moved at once.
One lunged for Aria.
Two rushed him.
Zayden's eyes darkened.
The power answered before thought.
Dark smoke burst from his hand, slamming the nearest hunter into the wall hard enough to crack plaster.
The second hunter caught his wrist.
Silver runes burned across the glove.
The mark on Zayden's hand screamed.
Pain surged.
His vision blurred.
"Your contract is unstable," the hunter hissed.
"Perfect for extraction."
That word snapped something inside him.
Extraction?
No.
No one was taking anything.
The darkness inside him roared awake.
The room trembled.
Furniture splintered.
Glass cracked further.
"Zayden!" Aria's voice cut through the chaos.
But he barely heard it.
The power was rising too fast.
Again.
Hungry.
Violent.
Wrong.
The hunter smiled beneath its mask.
"Yes…"
It tightened its grip.
"Break."
Aria moved.
Faster than sight.
One moment she was across the room.
The next, her fingers pressed against the hunter's wrist.
The silver runes shattered.
Literally shattered.
Cracks raced across them like broken glass.
The hunter staggered back.
Its voice twisted with disbelief.
"…Impossible."
Aria's eyes were cold moonlight.
"Didn't they teach you?" she said softly.
"I break things."
The symbol circle on the floor flickered.
Then burst apart.
The chains around Zayden dissolved instantly.
The pressure lifted.
His breathing steadied.
Barely.
The third hunter rushed Aria from behind.
Zayden saw it first.
"Aria!"
She turned too late.
The hunter's blade slashed downward.
Zayden caught the arm midair.
His grip crushed bone.
A sickening crack echoed.
The hunter jerked violently.
Zayden's expression was unreadable.
Cold.
Murderously calm.
"You don't touch her."
The words came out low.
Dangerous.
Even Aria stilled for half a second.
Zayden drove the hunter into the floor.
The apartment shook.
Dark energy burst outward in a shockwave.
The remaining hunters stumbled back.
One looked toward Aria.
Fear.
For the first time.
Real fear.
"Retreat," the lead hunter ordered.
Silver symbols flashed beneath them.
A teleport seal.
Aria stepped forward.
"No."
Her voice dropped lower.
Ancient.
Wrong.
The seal cracked.
Then shattered.
The hunters froze.
Their escape cut off.
The room went silent.
Zayden slowly turned toward Aria.
Even he felt it now.
That thing in her presence.
That quiet, terrifying authority.
The lead hunter took a slow step back.
"What are you?" it whispered.
Aria's lips curved slightly.
Not a smile.
A warning.
"The reason your masters pray in locked rooms."
Silence.
Then she raised her hand.
The silver symbols engraved into the hunters' masks began to crack.
One by one.
They screamed.
A raw, distorted sound.
The contracts binding them unraveled in visible threads of pale light.
Broken.
Severed.
Gone.
Within seconds, all three hunters collapsed.
Unconscious.
Or worse.
The room fell still.
Dust floated through moonlight spilling in from the broken windows.
Zayden stared at her.
"You could've done that from the beginning."
Aria lowered her hand.
A flicker of exhaustion crossed her face.
Brief.
Almost invisible.
"No."
She looked at him.
"I needed to see how you fight."
That landed harder than any blade.
He narrowed his eyes.
"You were testing me."
"Yes."
No apology.
Of course not.
A beat of silence stretched between them.
Then—
one of the fallen hunters let out a weak laugh.
Both of them turned.
The lead hunter was still conscious.
Its mask cracked down the middle.
"You're too late," it rasped.
Aria's expression darkened.
"What do you mean?"
The hunter's smile widened.
"There's already another team."
A pause.
"At the cathedral."
Aria went still.
Completely still.
Zayden noticed immediately.
"What cathedral?"
Her eyes met his.
Sharp.
Urgent.
"The place where the Order keeps its original contracts."
A beat.
"If they get there first…"
She didn't finish.
She didn't need to.
Zayden already understood.
Whatever was there—
it mattered.
A lot.
He stepped toward the door.
"Then we move now."
Aria stared at him for half a second.
Then nodded once.
"Good."
The hunter laughed again.
Weak.
Broken.
"You won't make it in time."
Zayden glanced back.
A cold smile touched his lips.
"Watch me."