Chapter Three – Origins of Fire
754 Words
Flashback — Five Years Ago
AERIS’S POV
Blood was the first thing she tasted when her training began.
Her nose was broken within the first week. Bruised ribs, sprained wrists, sleep deprivation—just part of the welcome package. The government didn’t recruit girls like her to save them.
They recruited girls like her because she had nothing left to lose.
Seventeen. No family. No future. Just anger and a record sealed under a hundred layers of classified ink.
Reyes found her in a detention center, sitting cross-legged after breaking a corrupt cop’s kneecap with a hairpin.
“I see something in you,” he said.
“You see a weapon,” she corrected.
He smiled. “Same thing.”
And from that day forward, Aeris Valdez became someone else. Trained to infiltrate, seduce, manipulate, and if necessary—eliminate.
She thought she could be anything.
Until Luca Moretti looked at her like she was already someone.
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Present — Moretti Estate, Midnight
AERIS’S POV
“You never sleep,” Luca said from the doorway.
Aeris didn’t turn around. “You do.”
He stepped into the room, his voice low. “I don’t. I just pretend better.”
They stood in the soft lamp glow, silence between them thick with heat and truth.
Her body ached—not from the mission. From the weight of wanting.
Wanting something she shouldn’t.
Something forbidden.
Him.
When he stepped behind her, his breath brushed her neck.
“You’re still running,” he whispered.
“I’m still fighting.”
He touched her waist—tentative, like he expected her to pull away.
She didn’t.
Her voice was rough. “Are you going to kiss me or just stand there making the air hotter?”
He turned her, slowly.
And then he did kiss her—hungry, rough, as if this was the last time and the first time all at once.
Hands tangled in her hair. Her nails raked down his chest. His mouth found the hollow of her throat, and she gasped, arching against him.
“Tell me to stop,” he said hoarsely.
“I won’t.”
And she didn’t.
They crashed into the bed like waves to shore—no fear, no rules, only flame.
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Elsewhere — East Wing
EVA’S POV
She hated how good Silas Cruz looked when he wasn’t trying.
Shirt unbuttoned just enough to annoy her, posture careless, fingers flipping a coin as he lounged in her library.
“I know what you’re doing,” she said, arms crossed.
“Breathing?” he asked innocently.
“Undermining. Spying. Playing both sides.”
Silas grinned. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
Eva’s jaw clenched. “I don’t trust you.”
He stood, walking toward her slowly. “That’s because you still want to.”
She slapped the coin from his hand. “You play too many games.”
“And you play too few. That’s why Luca will lose. Unless he starts thinking like me.”
“Or thinking like me,” she replied.
They stood nose to nose, fire dancing between their gazes.
“Tell me,” Silas murmured, brushing a strand of hair from her cheek, “do you ever get tired of pretending you’re not like the rest of us?”
Eva’s breath hitched. She hated that he could read her. She hated that he saw her.
And she really hated that part of her wanted him to keep looking.
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Flashback — Thirteen Years Ago
LUCA’S POV
His father didn’t raise sons.
He raised soldiers.
Luca was nine when he saw his first body. Eleven when he had to explain why it was necessary. Fourteen when he stopped flinching.
Silvano Moretti taught him that love was weakness and emotion was betrayal.
But Luca remembered his mother.
Soft voice. Gentle eyes. Gone too soon. Rumors said she fled. Others whispered Silvano had her killed.
He never asked.
Because the day he did… he’d stop being her son.
He would fully become his father’s.
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Present — Luca’s Room
LUCA’S POV
Aeris slept beside him, tangled in white sheets and heat.
For a moment, he allowed himself to watch her. Not as a threat. Not as an agent.
As a woman.
As his.
He knew this couldn’t last. That the walls would close. That Reyes—or worse—would come back for her.
But tonight, she chose him.
And for the first time in his life that felt like enough.
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To be continued…
- Writer
