When I heard Elliot’s body hit the ground with a heavy thwack, my first instinct was to take a step back, as though he would get up to retaliate. But with Yujin behind me, I only inched closer into their embrace. I blinked my eyes open and looked up at them. They smiled down at me with one hand still tenderly wrapped around my head. “Good girl, you did great.”

I stood there frozen, staring over at the pile of a man in front of us. I barely noticed the details of my partner’s ...