Luelle stood across the street, her figure still beneath the dim glow of a dying streetlight, her gaze fixed on the glass tower cutting into the night sky.
Ethan Frost. Top floor. Light on. Always. He hasn't changed.
Her arms were folded, but not against the cold. The night didn't touch her like it used to. Not anymore.
Her focus wasn't on the building. It was on him. And the memory that hadn't left her since the night before. Her fingers curled slightly inside her sleeves. He had reached for her. Not consciously. Not fully aware. But real. So real.
"Don't go." His voice had been rough with sleep. Heavy. Unfiltered. Not the controlled tone the world knew. Not the sharp, calculated edge of Ethan Frost. Something else. Something softer. Something… honest.
Luelle closed her eyes for a brief second. She could still feel it. The warmth of his hand around her wrist. The way he had pulled her closer—not with force, but with something far more dangerous. Need.
"I know this isn't real," he had murmured against her skin and still e hadn't let go. Her breath steadied slowly as she opened her eyes again. Across the street, nothing had changed. But inside her everything had.
"You stayed longer last night." Charles' voice broke softly through her earpiece. Not sharp.Not accusing. Just… aware.
Luelle didn't look away from the building. "I miscalculated the time."
A pause. Then, dry— "You don't miscalculate."
Silence. Because he was right. She didn't. Not in missions. Not in movement. Not in control. But this wasn't that. Her gaze lifted slightly—toward that final lit window.
"He didn't want me to leave." The words came quieter than she intended.
Charles didn't respond immediately. When he did, his voice had changed. Softer.Careful. "And that matters?"
Luelle's jaw tightened. "No." A lie. A clean one. Practiced. Because it did matter. More than it should. More than she ever allowed.
Across the street, the city shifted. People moving. Cars passing. Light reflecting off wet pavement. But Luelle remained still. Anchored.
"He doesn't remember you," Charles said. Not cruel. Just truth.
Her chest tightened. Barely visible. Barely there.
"I know." She had always known. To him she was nothing. A dream. A shadow.Something his mind created in the quiet when the world got too heavy.
But to her those moments were everything because that was the only time he reached for her.
Her hand brushed absently against her shoulder. Against the scar. A reminder. A truth carved into her skin. She had given everything for him once. Without hesitation. Without expectation.
And somehow, she still was.
"Luelle." Charles again. Different now.
Her eyes sharpened slightly. "What."
"Don't lose your distance."
That made something in her still. Not break. Not react. Just… still.
"I'm not." But even she didn't fully believe that anymore. Because distance meant leaving. And she hadn't left. Not once.
Her gaze shifted. Slow. Calculated. Scanning. And then she saw him. A man. Seated across from the building. Still. Too still. Not looking at his phone. Not watching the street. Watching up. Toward Ethan's floor.
Everything inside Luelle went quiet. Cold. Focused.
"Luelle?" Charles pressed.
"There's someone here." His tone changed instantly.
"Describe."
"Male. Mid-thirties. Civilian clothing." A beat. "Not civilian."
The man shifted slightly. Controlled. Precise.
"I've seen that posture before."
"Then you already know what I'm going to say," Charles replied. "Pull back."
Luelle didn't move.
"No."
Silence.
Sharp.
"That's not your call."
Her gaze never left the man.
"No," she said quietly. "It is."
Because across the street Ethan Frost stood alone. Unaware. And she had spent thirteen years making sure nothing reached him.
The man stood.
That was enough. Luelle stepped forward. Out of the shadows.
"I'm not observing anymore."
She moved through traffic without hesitation, the world bending around her focus, her presence unnoticed—like it always was.
"I'm protecting."
The line went dead. Not static. Not interference. A choice. Charles understood. There would be no stopping her now. And for the first time that night, Luelle didn't think about the mission, she thought about his voice.
Don't go. And stepped into the danger anyway.