The Bride they burned

"They all want to save her.

None of them realize—she doesn't want saving.

She wants to be feared."

---

NYRA – SAHIR'S SAFEHOUSE, NIGHT

I sat across from him in a room too clean to feel real.

Sahir hadn't aged. Not really.

Same storm-gray eyes. Same scar above his left brow. Same voice that made my bones remember softness in a life filled with razors.

> "You left me," I said again.

He leaned forward.

> "No. I was taken."

> "By who?"

> "Your husband."

The world spun.

> "Ravian?"

He nodded.

> "Eight years ago, I got close to something I wasn't supposed to see. A file. A black project. Your name was in it. And then I disappeared. For two years, I was off-grid. Tortured. Drugged. Branded."

He pushed up his sleeve.

And there it was.

A burn scar. A V. Carved like a trophy.

> "V for Varma?" I whispered.

> "No," he said. "V for Vora."

---

LEO & KRAY – ABANDONED LOT

> "You following me, pretty boy?" Kray asked, cocking his head.

> "You lied to her," Leo snapped. "About Ravian. About the boy. About everything."

Kray chuckled darkly.

> "And what? You think she's going to crawl into your arms just because you shout louder?"

Leo stepped forward, punching him straight in the jaw.

Kray stumbled—then grinned, blood dripping from his mouth.

> "That all you got?"

> "Not even close."

Kray lunged, pinning Leo to the car.

> "You think she belongs to you. But I saw her first. I cleaned her blood off the wine cellar floor. I buried her body."

> "Then maybe you should've buried yourself with her."

Another punch.

This time Kray didn't dodge.

---

CELESTE – ON THE ROOFTOP

She watched them fight from above.

Like a goddess of the sick.

A bottle of wine in one hand. A gun in the other.

> "Boys, boys," she purred, "you're both too late."

She pressed send on a message.

> To Ravian: Sahir's alive. And Nyra's remembering everything.

---

NYRA – FLASHBACK (AGE 17)

> "Promise me you'll never stop drawing," I told Sahir.

He laughed.

> "Only if you promise you'll never let the world change you."

> "I promise."

> "Then we're doomed," he whispered, pulling me close.

---

AARAV – UNKNOWN CELLAR

He was alone again.

But they'd left his drawings.

That was their mistake.

He picked one, tore the edge, and began writing in small lines.

Each stroke a message.

If she ever found this, she'd know.

"M—He knows your real name now."

"R—He's watching through her."

"K—He's not lying. He was crying."

"S—He never stopped drawing you."

His fingers bled.

But the code was ready.

---

NYRA – THE SAFEHOUSE, LATER

I turned to Sahir.

> "Why now?"

> "Because you forgot who you were."

> "I'm a killer now," I whispered.

> "No," he said. "You're still the girl who danced in the rain and begged for nothing but a quiet life."

I laughed.

But it cracked.

> "That girl is dead."

He pulled me close.

> "Then let's bring her ghost to war."

I didn't cry.

But I broke.

And he held the pieces like they weren't knives.

---

RAVIAN – LOOKING AT A MAP

> "She's choosing him again," he said.

A woman behind him leaned close.

> "And what will you do, sir?"

> "Burn everything she touches."

He circled a location.

And smiled.

> "The safehouse."

---

TO BE CONTINUED…