Blade, Blood, and Breath
Episode -------33
For a breath, the world shrank to rain, steel, and heartbeat.
Zayid's blade gleamed under broken moonlight, sweeping down for Raian's throat — death, certain and cold.
Aria ran — feet slipping on blood-slick stone, lungs burning, heart louder than fear.
"Raian!" she screamed, voice cracking.
Raian lifted his gaze — storm-grey eyes meeting hers, raw and unguarded, a silent apology in their depths.
And then the blade fell.
---
Metal rang, sharper than thunder.
Pain tore through Raian's shoulder — but it wasn't fatal.
Aria had collided into Zayid at the last heartbeat, her smaller frame throwing his strike off course. The blade bit deep into Raian's flesh, blood spilling hot and bright — but his life was spared.
Zayid snarled, half in surprise, half in fury. "Foolish girl!"
He backhanded Aria — pain exploded across her cheek, sending her sprawling to the cold stone.
Raian's vision swam red, but rage burned clearer than agony.
He rose, breath ragged, sword trembling in his blood-slick grip.
"Zayid!" he rasped, voice low as a growl. "She is not yours to hurt."
---
Across the hall, Ayan forced himself upright despite his wounded leg, eyes wild, searching.
"Aria!" he rasped.
Lina's hand closed around his arm. "She's alive!" she whispered, though fear sharpened her words.
Ayan lifted the pistol, pain lancing through every breath, but the fight between Raian and Zayid moved too close — too fast to risk a shot.
---
Zayid's blade swept again — brutal, relentless. Raian blocked, steel screeching against steel.
But strength fled Raian's limbs, blood pouring from the deep gash across his shoulder.
Zayid's sneer twisted into something darker. "You've grown weak, brother," he spat.
Raian's voice rasped, barely above the rain. "And you've grown cruel."
---
Lightning flared, shadows dancing across broken walls.
Zayid feinted left — then drove his blade hard toward Raian's chest.
Raian twisted, but not fast enough — steel scraped bone, pain flashing white behind his eyes.
He stumbled, breath ragged, sword dipping.
---
Aria crawled across the wet marble, hand closing around the gun she'd dropped. Her vision blurred by tears and rain, but her gaze locked on Zayid — the man who would kill the man she loved.
In that moment, she remembered Raian's question from their first night:
> "What scares you more? The darkness you see in me… or the darkness you've yet to see in yourself?"
And now, her answer came clear as blood:
> "Losing you scares me most."
---
Zayid raised his blade for the killing blow.
Aria aimed.
"Raian!" she screamed — and pulled the trigger.
---
The gunshot cracked the air.
Zayid's body jerked — the bullet tearing through his side, close to the ribs.
Not fatal — but enough to stagger him, to twist his strike.
Raian lunged forward, pain forgotten, blade sweeping in a wide, desperate arc.
Steel bit deep into Zayid's thigh. Blood fountained.
Zayid cursed, voice rough with rage and shock.
---
Breathing hard, Raian pressed closer.
"You always wanted my place," he rasped, blade rising again. "Take it in hell."
His sword plunged — not into Zayid's chest, but lower, slicing across his abdomen.
Zayid staggered, knees buckling, blade slipping from numb fingers.
"Brother…" Zayid gasped, voice strangled by pain and disbelief. "You'd kill your own blood?"
Raian's eyes were hollow, haunted. "You were never my brother," he whispered.
---
Zayid collapsed, breath bubbling wetly, eyes glazing as rain drummed on broken stone.
Silence roared in the aftermath — louder than gunfire, louder than thunder.
Raian swayed, vision tunneling.
Then Aria was there, arms catching him, her cheek bruised, eyes wet and wild.
"Stay with me," she begged, voice cracking. "Raian, please."
---
His sword clattered to stone, blood still dripping from the blade.
Raian's hand lifted, trembling, to brush her rain-soaked hair from her face.
"You came back," he rasped, voice barely a breath.
"I never left," she whispered, pressing her forehead to his.
His breath shuddered out, pain and relief crashing together. "I've done so much you don't know," he murmured. "Things that can't be forgiven."
"Then let me decide what I can forgive," Aria whispered, tears sliding across the bruise on her cheek.
---
Across the hall, Ayan leaned on Lina, sword dangling from limp fingers, leg shaking with each heartbeat.
"It's over," Lina breathed, chest heaving.
"For now," Ayan rasped, eyes never leaving Raian and Aria.
They all knew other enemies waited beyond these walls — but in that moment, there was only quiet.
---
Raian's knees buckled. Aria caught him, though his weight nearly crushed her.
"Don't you dare die now," she sobbed. "Not after everything."
Raian's hand cupped her face, thumb brushing away tears.
"I won't," he rasped, voice hoarse. "Not if you're here."
---
Rain washed blood across broken marble, as if the storm itself mourned what had been lost and what might yet be saved.
Aria pressed her hand to Raian's wound, blood hot under her palm.
"Stay with me," she whispered again, softer this time.
His eyes, storm-grey and raw, found hers. "I'm trying," he breathed, lips twitching into a broken half-smile.
---
In the distance, sirens wailed — drawing closer, a reminder that dawn wouldn't bring safety.
Ayan stepped closer, Lina beside him, both battered but standing.
"We need to move," Ayan rasped, voice sharp despite exhaustion. "The city won't stay quiet for long."
"And Zayid's men may not stop," Lina added, gaze steady.
---
Raian's gaze dropped to Zayid's still form, breath catching.
Aria saw the pain flicker there — not triumph, but grief for what might have been.
"He chose hate," Raian whispered, voice cracked by sorrow. "And I chose you."
Aria's breath caught, tears spilling anew.
"And I choose you," she whispered back, heart pounding.
---
A tremor ran through the broken warehouse walls, thunder rolling in the distance.
Together, they turned — stepping over blood, past ruin, into whatever waited beyond.
Not saved.
Not forgiven.
But alive. And together.
---
Teaser for Episode 34:
In the dawn's fragile light, Aria learns the truth of Raian's past — and the promise that binds them both tighter than blood. Meanwhile, Lina faces her own darkest fear: what if Ayan's darkness can't be stopped next time?