Warning

Warning

“Some mornings don’t come with sunlight. Just consequences.”

The quiet didn’t last long.

We were back on the couch by the time the sky shifted from black to steel blue, our coffees growing cold between half-spoken thoughts. Silas was seated beside me, sleeves rolled up, knuckles scarred, gaze sharp but tired.

We weren’t touching, not like hours before. But we were different now. There was less armor between us. Less pretending.

He had just started to reach for his third refill when the knock came.

Three sharp raps. Not casual. Not cautious.

My body went still.

Silas was already on his feet.

I stood too, slow and careful, eyes tracking his every move. He crossed to the window, glanced through the slats, then cursed under his breath.

“It’s Luna,” he muttered, but didn’t lower his weapon. “How the hell—?”

A second knock. Firmer this time.

I moved before he could stop me and opened the door.

She stood on the porch, jacket zipped, hair tied, eyes blazing like she’d just come out of war.

“You tracked me,” I said flatly.

“I saved you,” she shot back, brushing past me. “Do you have any idea what you just walked into?”

She didn’t look at Silas right away. Didn’t even flinch when she saw him. She walked straight to the table and dropped a file between the mugs.

Inside: photos. One of me, taken from across the street. Another of Silas near my car the night it exploded. And one—

I froze.

It was of Luna and me. From yesterday. Inside my bedroom. Taken through the window.
“We need to talk,” she said, her voice clipped, low. “You’re being watched.”

Silas hadn’t moved.

Gun still in his hand, finger still on the trigger.

“I came alone,” Luna added.

“You’re late,” he said, voice flat. “They’ve already traced her movements. You’re just here to see if she took the bait.”

My stomach twisted.

“Wait—what?”

Silas stepped forward, gun now raised — at Luna.

I moved to stop him, but his arm was solid steel. His eyes locked on her like he was reading every twitch in her face.

“You were clean last month,” he said. “But you disappeared for four hours two weeks ago. No signal. No trace.”

“I told you,” Luna snapped, “I was meeting a contact.”

“Then why,” he growled, “was your car parked outside a Navarro warehouse?”

Luna’s jaw clenched. “You’re going to take their side over mine?”

“I’m not taking sides,” Silas said coldly. “I’m staying alive.”

“Put the gun down,” I said sharply. “Now.”

He didn’t.

“Silas—”

“She’s compromised.”

“She’s my best friend.”

“Exactly,” he snapped, turning his eyes on me for the first time. “That’s what they always use.”

The silence after that was suffocating.

Luna stared at me. Her expression unreadable.

“You don’t believe me,” she said softly. “After everything.”

I didn’t answer.

Because I didn’t know.

My mind was racing too fast — the photos, the timing, the warehouse, the fact that she found us. That she found me. The part of me that loved her like a sister screamed to trust her.

The other part — the part that learned the hard way — whispered: Don’t be stupid.

“Silas,” I said finally, voice calm but sharp. “Lower the gun.”

He looked at me for a long time. Too long.

Then he lowered it.

But didn’t put it away.

Luna let out a shaky breath and walked toward the window. The file still lay open between us.

“I came here,” she said without looking back, “because I know what they’re planning next. And it’s worse than anything you’ve survived so far.”

“Tell me,” I said.

She hesitated.

And then— “There’s someone in your inner circle. Not just watching you. Controlling things behind your back. Meetings. Decisions. Every move you make is being manipulated.”

My pulse thudded in my ears.

“Who?”

She looked at Silas. Then at me.

“I don’t know yet. But you’ve been fed lies.”

“Prove it.”

“I will.”

Then her eyes dropped to the file again.

“And when I do… it’ll already be too late.”

I watched Luna with a stillness I didn’t recognize in myself.

She stood by the fireplace, arms crossed tightly over her chest like she was holding something inside — something sharp. Her eyes wouldn’t meet mine. Not fully.

“You’re not telling me everything,” I said.

She flinched. That was all I needed.

Silas didn’t move from behind me, but I felt the tension in his frame — the way his breathing slowed, the way his fingers hovered near the gun he hadn’t fully holstered.

Luna looked at me like she hated herself.

“I didn’t betray you,” she said. “But they… they found my brother.”

My stomach dropped.

“They?” I repeated.

“Navarro agents. A few weeks ago. I don’t know how they found him — I’ve kept him off the grid since he left the country, but they showed me pictures. Told me exactly where he was. Said he’d have an ‘accident’ if I didn’t play nice.”

Silas swore under his breath.

“I didn’t give them anything,” Luna said quickly, urgently, voice shaking. “I didn’t say a word about you, or Silas, or the estate. But I had to… I had to listen. I had to let them think I would. Just to keep Enzo alive.”

My blood ran cold. I took a step toward her, slow, deliberate.

“You let them follow you. Track you. Bring them to me.”

“I didn’t know they would,” she snapped, but the guilt in her voice betrayed her. “I swear, Aria, I just wanted to warn you before they made their move.”

“So you lied. Again.”

Luna went quiet. Her lips parted, but nothing came out.

I stared at her like I didn’t know her. Like she was a ghost wearing my best friend’s face.
I hated this. Hated the part of me that wanted to believe her — because she had been there when my mother died, when Silas disappeared, when everything broke. She was the one who held me while I screamed in silence.

But she was also the one who burned an envelope in her fireplace two nights ago. Who tracked me to a remote cabin with armed eyes behind her.

She saw the decision in my eyes before I said it.

“You can stay,” I said coldly. “For now.”

Luna’s shoulders dropped. “Thank you—”

“But if you lie to me again,” I cut in, “you’re next.”

Silas didn’t flinch. Didn’t look surprised. He just glanced at Luna like he was already preparing the bullet.

Luna swallowed hard. And nodded.

I didn’t say anything else. I just turned away, walked to the window, and gripped the frame like it could hold me up.

Because everything inside me was shaking again.

Trust. Memory. Grief. Rage.

I had no idea who was safe anymore.

And the people I loved kept handing me knives behind their backs.