LOCATION: Vairo Safehouse, Outer Perimeter

TIME: 7:45 a.m.

The sun had started to rise.

And with it, the version of her no one had ever met.

She didn’t ride back on a black ops bike.

Didn’t wear tactical black or blood-soaked boots.

She wore gray. Clean. Neutral. A silence made flesh.

Lucien stood outside, hands deep in his coat pockets, eyes fixed on the treeline like a man expecting death and hoping it came fast.

When he saw her, he didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.

He just ...