Chapter 16
By the time Airis hit the brakes, Ethan and his two friends had already stepped out of their car.
I got out immediately, instinctively studying their posture and checking whether they were armed.
They looked harmless.
At least physically.
My friends had already moved closer to them, and relief washed through me when I noticed Lars, Camille, and Justin positioning themselves around the group.
Protective.
Strategic.
Ready for anything.
Airis stepped beside me at the same moment.
“And here we have the pathetic little bastards who burned my paintings,” Ethan said with an unsettling calmness, shifting his gaze between Gwen and me.
“You mean the ones you stole?” Gwendolyn crossed her arms over her chest.
Gwendolyn looked at Ethan with even more hatred than Dwayne did.
After all, he'd spent months feeding Dwayne false promises of something real.
“Why are you here, Ethan?” Dwayne asked, trying to sound uninterested, though tension radiated from every inch of his body.
“What do you mean why?” Gwen snapped before Ethan could answer. “Probably because he wants someone to finally smash his arrogant face in.”
Ethan ignored her completely.
“I came to offer you a choice,” he said casually before slipping a hand into his pocket.
My eyes instantly dropped to the movement.
Every muscle in my body tightened.
I was already preparing to step forward when Ethan finally pulled something out.
A familiar bright-red keychain shaped like lips.
Attached to it were my keys.
My actual fucking keys.
For a second, the sound of the sea disappeared.
After the fire, I'd never been able to find them.
Part of me had assumed I'd dropped them somewhere near Ethan's garage.
But I'd still hoped the flames had destroyed them.
“I think this little piece of evidence is more than enough for the police to open a case against you.”
A sugary smirk spread across his pierced lips.
“And what exactly is this choice?” Mike asked, stepping closer to Camille.
“I won't hand these over to the police if you compensate me for the damages,” Ethan replied.
“Not just for the garage.”
His smile widened.
“For everything inside it too.”
Gwen let out a loud scoff, clearly ready to argue, but Mike’s hand landing on her shoulder stopped her.
“Or,” Ethan continued, “one of you can race for me tonight.”
“What?” I frowned. “What race?”
“Near Baltic Triangle.”
Ethan’s gaze immediately found Mike.
“I heard one of you used to have experience with that before deciding to become all serious about studying.”
Mike pressed his lips together.
He’d been participating in illegal street races since he was seventeen.
Not for fun.
For money.
Back then, his family desperately needed it because his father had been battling leukemia.
But once his father recovered and their financial situation improved, Mike had quit racing entirely.
“He’s done with that life,” Dwayne cut in sharply.
For the first time, the carefree mask he always wore cracked visibly.
Realizing that, I quickly stepped in.
“What if we prove you stole Dwayne’s painting idea?” I asked, drawing Ethan’s attention toward me. “Maybe the police won’t matter then, but your reputation as an artist will be destroyed permanently.”
“Or,” Airis spoke beside me, “we could simply take the keys from you.”
His voice remained frighteningly calm.
“Doesn’t it seem stupid trying to threaten people trained to fight since childhood?”
I froze for a moment, glancing sideways at him.
For some reason, I had absolutely no doubt he meant every word.
“Because luck happens to be on our side today,” Ethan yawned theatrically before signaling something to the two guys beside him.
Both pulled guns from beneath their sports jackets.
One pointed his weapon directly at Airis and me.
The other aimed at my friends.
And suddenly, everything inside my head went silent.
No anger.
No fear.
Just one horrifying realization.
If anyone started fighting, somebody was going to get hurt.
And nobody would be able to stop it.
“I’ll do the race,” Mike said firmly.
Gwendolyn immediately shot him a furious look, but he ignored it completely.
“Wonderful.”
Relief and satisfaction curled across Ethan’s lips.
Slowly, the guns lowered.
But one question kept clawing at my mind:
Why was this race so important to Ethan?
******
“And none of you find this race suspicious?” Dwayne asked as we walked through the dark alleys of Baltic Triangle.
Every local place was closed.
Minimal witnesses.
Perfect for an ambush.
“I do,” Airis nodded.
“I’m mostly worried about the car they’ll give me for the race,” Mike replied. “Ethan didn’t mention any details.”
“If that damn pile of scrap metal turns out to be faulty, I’ll personally beat the living hell out of that asshole, and no weapon will stop me,” Gwendolyn said with dangerous calmness.
“Is this how problems are solved in the human world?” Justin asked, meeting my gaze.
I was slightly surprised.
He hadn’t really spoken to me one-on-one before.
“Well…” I started, but Dwayne quickly interrupted me.
“Sane people don’t.”
Our eyes met, and I smiled instinctively.
Our lives had never been normal.
But those very circumstances were what tied us together.
“I’m starting to think you all need more protection from your own decisions than from Moss and his people,” Camille said, though there wasn’t a trace of irritation on her face.
A sly smile rested on her full lips.
“Sounds about right,” Airis agreed as he caught up to me.
Though he still didn’t address me directly.
After the encounter with Ethan, we hadn’t exchanged even a few words.
The tension between us—the one that had seemingly disappeared while we were painting—was making itself known again.
Our group turned the corner, following the address that led us toward one of the abandoned parking lots.
Every instinct inside me screamed that we were making a mistake.
Yet my legs kept moving after Lars and Justin.
The moment we stepped onto the lot, I spotted a crowd in the distance.
Mostly men.
And two vehicles parked farther behind them.
My gaze immediately began cataloging details.
Numbers.
Positions.
Possible exits.
There had to be at least twenty people here.
For one race.
I had expected a few spectators.
A starting line.
Sports cars.
I stopped the second I realized the vehicles parked nearby weren't racing cars.
They were trucks.
One of them was even blocking the exit.
No racing cars.
No starting line.
No race.
Ethan looked far too calm.
And the crowd wasn't waiting for a competition.
They were waiting for us.
“It’s a trap,” I said, making everyone stop completely.
Silence followed.
“So what do we do? Run?” Gwendolyn asked, though every line of her body clearly hated the suggestion.
I swallowed hard.
And at that exact moment, my eyes met Ethan’s.
And in his eyes, I found all the confirmation I needed.
He wasn’t smiling.
He looked at us like we were prey.
“We attack first.”
For a second, nobody moved.
I expected objections.
Questions.
At the very least, hesitation.
Instead, Airis let out a quiet chuckle beside me.
Somehow, that sound steadied me.
I exhaled and closed my eyes for a brief second.
When I opened them again, I caught a subtle movement from one of the men standing beside Ethan.
Something metallic glinted inside his pocket.
And I would have bet anything they hadn’t come here unarmed.
If we waited, they’d surround us.
“Act natural,” I said, taking a step toward Ethan and the others. “And when I say three, hit them.”
We started walking.
Thousands of possible outcomes raced through my mind.
Most of them ended badly.
All of them focused on the same objective:
Get everyone out alive.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Airis walking beside me.
Matching my pace.
Matching my confidence.
As if he’d already accepted the plan.
One thought suddenly crossed my mind.
“How well can you see in the dark?” I asked quietly.
“I already know what you’re planning, Fireling,” Airis replied, sounding almost smug.
“Just give the signal when you’re ready.”
“On three,” I repeated.
Then fell silent.
I forced myself to relax.
To ignore the stares following us.
There were far too many of them for eight people.
“Cute place,” I said with a smile, a little louder than intended. “Do all races happen in places like this?”
Ethan’s expression changed immediately.
The predator disappeared.
The performance returned.
And with it came the familiar smug grin.
“Only this one,” Ethan replied, tilting his head slightly as he looked me over.
He didn’t look embarrassed in the slightest.
“If you’re a good girl tonight, maybe I’ll show you a few more places like this.”
The implication made me instantly nauseous.
But I forced myself to smile.
Forced myself to keep walking.
Plastering a charming expression onto my face, I stepped closer to Ethan as though I wanted to be near him.
At the same time, I measured the distance between us.
Calculated the angle.
Decided exactly where I’d strike.
I was just about to give Airis and the others the signal when someone understood me without words.
A loud crack echoed across the parking lot.
Every headlight died at once.
Darkness swallowed everything.
It was Airis.
I knew it.
Even through the darkness, I caught Ethan’s expression.
Confusion.
Just for a second.
More than enough.
I drove my knee straight into his stomach.
The moment he doubled over, my fist crashed into his jaw.
And then all hell broke loose.
They were armed.
Thankfully, not with guns.
Because I had absolutely no idea how we would've dealt with guns.
“Turn the lights back on!” Ethan shouted somewhere in the darkness.
The mages immediately gained the advantage.
They could see far better than the others.
But my friends were holding their ground surprisingly well.
One massive guy lunged out of the darkness, swinging a dagger wildly.
I moved before he could finish the strike.
The blade flew from his hand.
A kick to the stomach.
Another to the jaw.
The combination I always fell back on.
Around us, everything was dissolving into chaos.
Blood splattered across the pavement.
People shouted.
Someone screamed.
Metal clanged against concrete.
And then another sound cut through the noise.
Sirens.
Distant.
But getting closer.
This time, Ethan was the one who froze.
“Shit! The cops!” someone from Ethan’s group yelled.
“We need to go,” I heard Dwayne’s voice through the chaos.
Quiet.
Steady.
“I called them beforehand.”
I’d recognize that voice anywhere.
Even in the middle of a fight.
“We need to make sure those assholes don’t get away,” Gwendolyn said somewhere nearby.
It felt strange hearing them so clearly.
Like we were talking over the phone instead of standing in the middle of a brawl.
“They won’t leave us alone unless they get caught.”
She was right.
“Leave that to me.”
Airis’s voice came from somewhere close behind me.
And suddenly I realized he'd been there the entire time.
Close enough to reach me.
Close enough to protect me.
Like a shield.
I watched him lift the dust settled across the cracked concrete.
A powerful gust of wind tore through the parking lot.
The dust shot directly toward Ethan’s group.
New screams erupted immediately.
People stumbled.
Coughed.
Cursed.
At the same moment, Airis’s hand brushed against mine.
Briefly.
Deliberately.
“We need to get out of here. Now.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed members of his squad guiding my friends toward the exit.
Everything was moving.
Fast.
Controlled.
As though they had rehearsed situations like this a hundred times before.
And for the first time that night, I finally allowed myself to breathe.
Not because the fight was over.
Not because the police were coming.
But because I knew he wouldn't let anything happen to us.
And for the first time that night, I let myself trust him completely.