My fist drives into his ribs, and this time I feel something give under the impact… not just resistance.
Damage.
His breath breaks on the exhale, sharp and involuntary, but he still comes back at me, fist cutting toward my jaw. I roll with it, take the edge instead of the center, and answer by slamming him backward into the concrete wall hard enough to rattle the metal frame behind him.
“This is who you are,” he manages, trying to drag me into something that looks more like a conversation. “You don’t get to pretend anymore?—”
My fist cuts him off.
Once.
Twice.
The third one splits skin.
Blood hits my hand, warm and immediate, but I don’t slow. I keep him pinned there, keep him contained, driving force into him until his footing breaks, and he drops.
He doesn’t go down clean.
He twists as he falls, dragging at my jacket, trying to take me with him, trying to pull me into the kind of fight he knows how to win. His hand catches, leverage shifts… for half a second, it almost works.
I shut it down.
Drive him flat to the floor.
I follow him down without thinking, one hand locking into his collar, the other braced against his throat, not choking, not yet, but close enough that he feels exactly how little space he has left.
“You don’t get to touch her,” I say.
He laughs anyway.
Even now.
“You’re still the same,” he spits, blood at the corner of his mouth. “You think this makes you different?”
Behind me, Zane cuts through, sharp and controlled. “I’ve got you.”
Aurora.
The steely word settles into me.
Cole surges under me, a last push of resistance, trying to shift leverage, trying to claw back control he already lost.
I shut it down.
I drive him back into the concrete.
My fist comes down again, controlled, deliberate, enough to take more from him without losing hold of the line I’m walking.
Then, movement. I turn just enough to catch it. Another man, fast, weapon up, angle lined straight at me.
Finn moves first.
He cuts across the space without hesitation, intercepting the line of fire, and the impact lands into him with a sick, heavy sound that tears a sharp breath out of his chest.
Everything inside me goes cold.
I let Cole go.
