The rain fell like tears from a grieving sky.
Seraphina vale had always hated the old district after midnight. The streets become unfamiliar, the shadows seemed to stretch a little too far, and the silence carried the unsettling feeling that something was watching her.
Tonight, however, she had no choice but to walk through them.
Her car had broken down three streets away, her phone was dying, and the last taxi had disappeared into the darkness before could flag it down,
Then, she heard footsteps.
Slow. Deliberate. Unhurried.
She turned.
A man stood beneath the flickering streetlamp, dressed in black from head to toe. His dark hair fell across his forehead, and his eyes had a peculiar crimson glow that should have frightened her more than it did.
He was beautiful in a way that felt almost cruel.
Something resembling amusement crossed his face.
"Only the interesting ones."
He approached, and the air changed. He smiled faintly of rain, cedarwood, and something metallic. She should have stepped away. Instead, she found herself studying the sharp line of his jaw and the unnerving stillness of his expression.
"Lucien Draven," he said.
"Should i know who you are?"
"No," his gaze travelled to the small silver pendant resting against her chest. For the first time, his composure fracured. "But I know exactly what you are."
Before she could demand an explanation, a secon voice emerged from the darkness.
"Careful, Lucien. You have a terrible habit of frightening the women you want."
Another man stepped into the sreet. His hair was dark silver beneath the moonlight, his smile dangerously effortless, and his blue eyes sparkled with wicked amusement.
Lucien's expression hardened.
"Damien."
"Still wearing that charming expression, Isee,: Damien looked at Seraphina. "And who might this beautiful woman "Someone who doesn't belong to either of you," she replied.
Damien laughed softly.
"Oh, I like her."
Lucien did not laugh.
He was staring at Seraphina's pendant as though it were a weapon pointed directly at his heart.
And when the clouds parted, revealing the blood-red moon above them, he whispered a word that made Damien's smile disappear.
"Impossible."
Because Seraphina Vale was supposed to have died before she was ever born.