The lab was supposed to be empty.
It was after midnight, and the only light came from a single desk lamp casting a golden pool across the floor. I had disabled the security cameras. Left no trace on the door logs. I wasn't here officially. I never was.
And yet, I wasn't alone.
Theo Lucenti was lounging in my chair, one leg propped on the desk, spinning a flash drive between his fingers like it was a coin meant to decide someone's fate.
I froze for half a second before my mask settled in place.
He grinned. "Well, well. If it isn't the elusive Miss Nochnaya. Breaking and entering? I'm impressed."
"Get out of my seat."
"Didn't see your name on it," he said, casually dropping his feet. "Though, I'll admit, it smells like perfume and superiority, so I figured."
I moved toward him without breaking eye contact.
He didn't flinch.
I leaned in, grabbed the flash drive from his hand, and slipped it into my pocket. "This doesn't belong to you."
"You'll want to check what's on it before assuming that."
He was too calm. Too sure.
I narrowed my eyes, plugged the drive into the terminal, and ran a contained scan.
Encrypted files. Military-grade. Buried beneath misdirection code and a signature I recognized too well.
Lux.
No. Not possible. How did Theo—?
"You stole this," I said flatly.
"Did I? Or did it just...fall into my lap?"
He was bluffing. He had to be. But he looked so damn smug, so sure of himself, like he knew something I didn't—and I hated that.
"I'm not in the mood for your games."
"Shame," he said, voice dropping half an octave. "Because I've been dying to play."
Something in his tone made my pulse skip. The air between us shifted, charged and tense. He stepped closer. Too close.
"You think I haven't noticed you slipping out between lectures, always three steps ahead of everyone else?" he murmured. "You're not as invisible as you think."
"And you're not as charming as you think."
He laughed softly. "I don't need charm to get under your skin."
I hated that he wasn't entirely wrong.
"You're playing with fire, Lucenti."
"And you keep walking into the flames."
We stared at each other, static, building like an unspoken dare. I should've stepped back. I didn't.
He leaned in, brushing a lock of hair behind my ear. "Why do I get the feeling you're hiding something... big?"
"Why do I get the feeling you can't handle it if I am?"
There was a pause, sharp as broken glass. His smile twisted. Darker now.
"You'd be surprised what I can handle," he whispered.
Then his hand brushed mine, just barely — a touch that could be dismissed as accidental if not for the way his eyes locked on mine, daring me to react.
I didn't.
But I felt it. Like a voltage ripple under my skin.
He stepped back, satisfied. "I'll let you get back to your little secret mission. But do me a favor?"
"What?"
"Try not to hack the Vatican this time. I hear they frown on that."
He left with a wink and the swagger of someone who had won something he hadn't yet earned.
As soon as the door clicked shut, I turned back to the screen.
Something was wrong.
The encryption pattern on the flash drive wasn't just Lux's signature — it was an updated version. Something I'd never seen before. Something alive.
I ran a deeper trace.
My heart stopped.
The drive had a pulse. A heartbeat code that mimicked real-time monitoring.
Someone was watching us. Right now.
Not Lux.
Not Theo.
Someone else.
Someone better.
My laptop chimed — a single note.
A message blinked to life.
FROM: UNKNOWN
"Checkmate is only the beginning."
I stood there frozen, every line of code on the screen whispering one thing louder than anything else.
The game was no longer just between Lux and Nyx.
Someone new had entered the arena.
And they were already three moves ahead.