For a second, no one moved.

Noa didn’t breathe. Didn’t blink. Just stared down the barrel of the gun pointed at the one person he couldn’t lose again.

His brother looked… unreal. Taller than he remembered. Lean muscle packed under a black coat that clung like a second skin. Hair longer, slicked back. Scar down his left brow. Eyes exactly the same but emptied out. Not dead. Just hollow, like something had been scooped out years ago and never returned.

Alessio stayed still. His body ...