A touch of shadow

Sofie was finally on her way home. After a long day at work, walking the empty streets was a relief. The evening was both chilly and stuffy — typical for a Moscow spring. The streets pulsed with lights, but Sofie felt as if she were moving through a separate reality. She walked briskly toward the metro, thinking only one thing: "I shouldn't have said that. But I had to."

Emotions surged. The fire from the office confrontation still burned in her heart, but beneath it lurked unease. And it wasn't unfounded.

At some point, she noticed someone following her. Not just once — three times. The same men. They walked slowly but steadily, as if trying not to draw attention.

She glanced over her shoulder.

Dressed ordinarily. Too ordinarily. Yet their movements were too fluid. As if they weren't walking, but... hunting.

She quickened her pace.

She turned into a side street, then another. She was losing them. Or so she thought. She stopped, pressed against the wall of an old tenement. Her heart pounded like a hammer.

Then someone grabbed her arm.

She jerked away, screamed, but the hand was strong, clenched. One of the men — now without a smile. He looked at her with cold, mechanical indifference.

"Miss Sofie Volkov?" he asked quietly. "Someone wants to talk to you."

"Let me go!" she hissed, trying to break free.

"We don't want to cause trouble. If you cooperate..."

Before he could finish the sentence, something happened.

A crack. Movement. A scream.

And suddenly, the man was pulled away from her with such force that he fell onto the pavement. The other two were also taken down within seconds.

Sofie stepped back, stunned. And then she saw him.

Aleksei.

In a black jacket, hood over his head, eyes blazing with anger. He was breathing heavily, as if he'd run across half the city.

"Did they touch you?" he asked sharply.

"How... how did you know?"

"I don't need to know. I feel it."

He approached her, wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She was trembling. Completely. Only now did she realize how close she'd come to something bad.

"Those are my wife's people. Or rather... her father's," Aleksei said quietly. "She wasn't joking. And she warned you for a reason."

"She wanted to scare me?"

"No. She wanted to give them time to warn you before I deal with them."

They fell silent.

They stood there for a moment — she against his chest, and he like a shield between her and the world. And then Sofie understood that no matter how much she feared it — she was already part of something bigger. She couldn't turn back.

"What now?" she asked, barely audible.

Aleksei looked to the side, as if assessing the threat that might still come.

"Now... I'm taking you to a safe place. And then... you'll have to decide if you still want to be close to me."

Sofie raised her head. She looked at him for a long time, intently.

"I've already decided. You just didn't know it yet."

He smiled briefly. Without words. But for the first time, there was no darkness in his eyes.

There was light.