Win has one rule: stay invisible. Keep his head down, keep his scholarship, keep painting. He's spent his whole life being careful.
One wrong turn at night breaks everything.
He sees something he was never supposed to see — and the man at the center of it, Kael, doesn't kill witnesses. He collects them.
Now Win owes a debt he never agreed to, to a man who speaks softly and destroys quietly. Kael wants compliance. Control. He tells himself that's all this is.
But Win is sharp where he should be silent, honest where he should perform — and Kael, for the first time in a long time, wants something he cannot simply take.
The problem is he doesn't know how to want things gently.