The Crown and the Fire

Not every love story is written in ink. Some are carved into bone.

Adrain..

The city stretched out before me, a sea of glowing lights and shifting shadows. My city.

For years, I had fought to keep it, to rebuild what had been stolen from me. I had bled for this empire, watched men betray me, buried the ghosts of my past in fire and bullets. And now? Now it was mine again.

But this time, I wasn't standing alone.

The wind howled against the rooftop, cold and sharp, but it didn't touch me. Not with Celeste at my side.

I glanced at her, watching as she took in the skyline, her expression unreadable. She had been through hell for me. Because of me. And yet, here she was. Still standing. Still mine.

"Not what you pictured, huh?" I murmured.

She let out a quiet laugh. "What, standing at the top of the empire we almost burned to the ground? No, not exactly."

I smirked, shoving my hands into my pockets. "Could've fooled me."

For a long moment, we stood in silence, the weight of everything pressing between us. The wars we had fought, the people we had lost, the scars we carried.

I turned to her fully, my voice quieter now. "It's over, Celeste. You don't have to keep fighting."

She exhaled slowly, as if testing the words. As if she didn't quite believe them yet. "And you?" she asked, tilting her head. "Do you?"

I thought about it. Thought about the rage that had fueled me for so long, the fire that had kept me alive when everything else tried to bury me.

Then I looked at her.

And I knew.

She was the only thing worth fighting for now.

Celeste

The wind whipped against my skin, sharp and unforgiving, but I barely felt it. I had survived worse.

Standing at Adrian's side, looking out over the city that had almost swallowed us whole, I realized something.

I wasn't the same woman who had walked into this world undercover, convinced she knew right from wrong. The lines had blurred, twisted, broken.

And I had never been freer.

Adrian's gaze was heavy on me, waiting. He had given me an out, but I wasn't taking it. I had already made my choice.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my old FBI badge. The last remnant of the person I used to be. The agent who thought she could bring him down. The woman who had been trapped between duty and desire.

I flipped it in my fingers once, then let it fall.

The wind caught it, carrying it off the edge of the skyscraper, swallowing it into the city below.

Adrian didn't say anything, but I felt the shift. The final thread of my past snapping, leaving only this moment.

I turned to him, smirking. "So what happens now, Ogonëk?"

His lips curved, that familiar fire burning in his dark eyes. "Now? Now, we build our own empire."

I smiled, stepping closer, until there was nothing left between us. Until his hands were on my waist, his breath mixing with mine.

And then, finally, we burned together.