The barrel of his gun pressed against my chest, right over my heart. As if he had to remind me that he'd always had it in his hands.

His grip was steady—of course it was. His hands had never wavered, whether pulling a trigger or tracing fire along my skin. But his eyes... his eyes betrayed him. Beneath the cold steel of his gaze, something burned—something raw, something unraveling.

"Tell me," he murmured, voice low, lethal, but not as steady as his hands. "When you said you loved me, was it a lie?"

The world shrank. Nothing existed except him, me, and the war that had been written in our blood long before we were born. A war we had tried—desperately, stupidly—to defy.

I had to lie. I had to save him.

So I lied, even though I knew it would kill him.
"Yes."

A sharp breath—barely there—but I felt it like a knife between my ribs. His knuckles turned white around the gun. And for a second, I thought this was it.

The safety clicked off. I didn't flinch. If he was going to kill me, he would do it looking into my eyes. He owed me that much.

His finger twitched on the trigger.

And then... nothing.

Seconds stretched like lifetimes. He could have ended this. Put a bullet through my heart and walked away like I meant nothing. But he didn't. He just stood there, breathing hard.

"Why?" he whispered, and for the first time, he sounded lost.

I could have told him the truth. That our families—his father, my mother—would have burned the city to the ground if they found out. That I had done this to save him. To make him hate me, so he would survive.

But he didn't deserve the truth. Not after this. Not after what I had done to him.

So I gave him the only answer that would set him free.
"Because I never loved you."

His breath hitched, but just for a second.

Then—nothing. Silence. Emptiness. A mask I had never seen him wear before.

He stepped back, lowered the gun.
"You should have lied," he said quietly.

And then he turned and walked away.

I stood there, waiting for relief.

It never came.

Because I knew what I had just done.
I hadn't saved him.
I had lost him.

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