Arka did not speak.
He simply stared at the screen in Aluna’s shaking hands.
The video froze on Victor’s face.
Smiling.
Patient.
Confident.
Like a man who believed the outcome was already decided.
Something inside Arka changed.
Not anger.
Not rage.
Those were emotions.
This was colder.
More precise.
More final.
Ren noticed it immediately.
“Don’t,” Ren said quietly.
Arka lifted his eyes.
And for the first time since they met, Ren saw something that made his chest tighten.
Resolution.
The kind that ended wars.
“Too late,” Arka replied.
Gunfire cracked through the street again.
A bullet shattered the windshield of a nearby car.
Glass rained across the asphalt.
Arka grabbed Aluna’s wrist firmly.
“Move.”
She stumbled as he pulled her toward the armored vehicle parked b
