The first thing Nana registered was warmth.
Not the oppressive heat of fire or the cold burn of Avalon's eternal gray—actual, genuine warmth. Like blankets. Like safety.
The second thing was the smell.
Tuna. Cooked tuna, with what smelled like... spices? Herbs? Something that made her mouth water despite the heavy fog in her head.
I must be dead, Nana thought distantly.
This is heaven. Or maybe just a really nice hallucination before the end.
Her head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, her lungs ached with each breath, and every muscle in her body screamed in protest as she forced herself to sit up.
The room was unfamiliar. Small, maybe ten by twelve feet, with concrete walls and a single window covered by what looked like layered cloth. A camping lantern provided soft light.
Her weapons—sword, knives, crossbow—were neatly arranged against one wall.
Her pack sat beside them, clearly searched through but everything present.
And she was lying on an actual mattress.
Thin and probably salvaged, but real.
With actual blankets.
Definitely dead, she decided. Avalon doesn't have nice things like this.
But her hunter instincts were screaming that something was different. Wrong. Or maybe... right?.
Her hand moved automatically to her thigh, finding the knife she always kept hidden there. Good. Still armed.
She stood on shaky legs, gripping the knife, and moved silently toward the doorway.
Years of hunter training made her footsteps soundless despite her weakness.
She peeked around the corner and froze.
A man stood at a makeshift cooking station—a camping stove set up on what looked like a repurposed desk. Tall. Dark hair that fell slightly over his forehead. Broad shoulders visible even through his worn jacket.
He was focused on the pan in front of him, stirring something with practiced precision, completely unaware of her presence.
And then he turned, sensing her somehow, and smiled.
Not his usual almost-invisible smile. A real one, warm and relieved and so genuine it transformed his entire face.
Hazel eyes met hers.
Zayne.
The knife slipped from Nana's nerveless fingers, clattering on the concrete floor.
For a heartbeat, neither of them moved. Nana's mind was trying to process—is this real? Is he real? Or am I still dying and this is my brain's final gift?.
Then she was moving.
"ZAYNE!"
She launched herself across the room with zero regard for physics or dignity or the fact that her body was still recovering from poison. Just pure, desperate need to reach him, to confirm he was real, to—
He caught her.
Of course he caught her. His arms wrapped around her like they'd been waiting three years for this exact moment, pulling her tight against his chest. One hand cradled the back of her head, the other pressed against her back, and he was solid and warm and real.
Nana broke down completely,all the grief, all the loss, all the weeks of being alone after Mina's death, all the fear that she'd never find him—it came pouring out in ugly, choking sobs that shook her entire body.
"I couldn't—I couldn't find you—" she gasped between sobs. "I looked everywhere—I thought you were dead—I thought I'd never—"
"Shh." Zayne's voice was thick with emotion, rougher than she'd ever heard it.
"I'm here. I'm real. You found me."
He pulled back just enough to cup her face in both hands, his thumbs wiping away tears that kept falling. And then he did something that made Nana's heart stop:
He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead—soft, gentle, lingering. Like he was trying to convince himself she was real too.
"I found you," Nana whispered, her voice completely broken. "I finally—"
Her legs gave out.
Zayne caught her again, sweeping her into his arms like she weighed nothing and carrying her to the room's only chair—a salvaged office chair that had seen better days but still worked.
He set her down carefully, then immediately went to his knees in front of her, checking her over with a doctor's critical eye.
"Poison exposure," he murmured, tilting her head to examine her eyes. "You inhaled too much. Your lungs are still inflamed. How long were you unconscious before I found you?"
"I don't know." Nana's voice was hoarse. "A few minutes? I thought—I thought you were a hallucination. The poison makes you hallucinate before you die."
Something flickered in Zayne's expression. Pain? Guilt?
"You weren't hallucinating. I found you collapsed in that store, barely breathing, poison gas everywhere."
His hands were gentle as they checked her pulse, examined the bruises on her arms.
"I had to use my ice evol internally. Crystallized the poison in your lungs, gave your body time to filter it out. You've been unconscious for thirty-six hours."
"Thirty-six..." Nana stared at him.
"You stayed with me for thirty-six hours?"
"Where else would I be?" He said it like it was obvious. "Now, you need to eat. Your body is severely malnourished. When was your last proper meal?"
She tried to remember. "Um. Maybe... two weeks ago? There was canned fruit—"
"Two weeks?" Zayne's composure cracked, his voice sharp. "Nana, you can't—" He stopped, took a breath, visibly forcing himself to calm. "We'll discuss your complete disregard for basic nutrition later. Right now, eat."
He brought her a plate—actual cooked tuna with what looked like preserved vegetables and even rice. Rice. In Avalon.
"How did you..." Nana gestured at the feast.
"I've had three years to figure out supply chains." Zayne watched her take the first bite, and something in his expression softened when she made a sound of pure bliss at the taste. "Eat slowly. Your stomach needs to adjust."
They're sat in comfortable silence while Nana ate—the first real meal she'd had in months. Zayne checked her injuries between bites, cataloging each one with clinical precision that didn't quite hide his concern.
"Broken rib, partially healed,"
he murmured, his fingers gentle on her side. "Shoulder dislocation, recent. Multiple lacerations, all showing signs of improper treatment. Nana, who was taking care of you?"
"I was taking care of myself." She caught his hand, holding it still. "Zayne, how did you survive three years? How are you even here? I thought—"
"Later." His thumb brushed across her knuckles. "Finish eating first. Then we'll talk."
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They sat on the rooftop as evening fell—or what passed for evening in Avalon's eternal gray.
Nana wore one of Zayne's spare jackets because hers was destroyed, and she was still weak enough that she leaned heavily against his side. He'd wrapped a blanket around them both, and the simple domesticity of it made her want to cry again.
"Tell me," Zayne said quietly.
"Tell me everything."
So she did.
She told him about waking up in the abandoned classroom, terrified and alone. About the bird-headed hybrid that had nearly killed her in her first hour. About Mina—meeting her, training with her, becoming sisters.
Her voice broke when she talked about the demon cycles, the floods, the endless fighting.
And when she reached Mina's death, she completely fell apart.
"She got bitten," Nana sobbed into Zayne's chest. "A demon bite. She was going to turn, and she asked me—she asked me to kill her before she did. And I—I had to—"
Zayne's arms tightened around her, one hand stroking her short hair. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry you had to do that alone."
"I miss her ..."Nana's voice was broken. "At the end, I gave her the last chocolate bar I'd found, and we both just cried because she loved chocolate so much. And then she gave me her necklace and told me to find you. To survive. To escape."
She pulled back enough to show him the silver necklace she still wore.
"This is all I have left of her."
Zayne studied the necklace, then her face, his expression unreadable. "She sounds like she was an incredible person."
"She was." Nana wiped her eyes.
"She saved me, Zayne. Taught me everything. How to fight, how to survive. Without her, I'd be dead ten times over."
"Then I owe her a debt I can never repay." Zayne's voice was rough. "Because she kept you alive long enough for me to find you."
They sat in silence for a while, Nana processing everything, trying to reconcile the cold, efficient doctor she'd known with this man who held her so carefully, who'd spent thirty-six hours keeping her alive, who looked at her like she was the most precious thing in all of Avalon.
"Your hair," Zayne said eventually, his fingers gentle as they touched the choppy ends.
"Why You cut it ?."
"Mina used to brush it." Nana's voice was small. "I couldn't... couldn't keep it. Too many memories."
"It suits you." He pressed another kiss to her forehead. "Though I admit I miss the way it used to stick up after you wore your helmet."
Despite everything, Nana found herself smiling. "You remember that?"
"I remember everything about you."
Zayne's arms tightened slightly. "Every time I saw you in the cafe. Every visit to my ER. The way you pouted when people scolded you. The way your face lit up over strawberry candy."
"The candy you gave me." Nana looked up at him. "You'd been carrying them around. For months. Waiting for an excuse to give me one. Right ?"
He stopped, and even in the dim light, Nana could see color rising in his cheeks.
"How did you know that?"
"Mina figured it out. Said any man who inspired me to become 'terrifyingly loyal' was someone she needed to approve of."
Nana's smile turned sad. "She would have liked you. Once she got past being intimidated by your ice-cold doctor routine."
"It's not a routine." But his lips quirked slightly. "I'm actually just socially incompetent."
"You're holding me like you're terrified I'll disappear. That's not socially incompetent. That's..." Nana's throat tightened. "That's someone who cares."
Zayne was quiet for a long moment. Then: "I've spent three years in this nightmare. Three years surviving, learning, mapping every district. And the only thing that kept me going was the hope that someday, somehow, I'd find a way to seal that portal permanently so no one else would suffer what I'd suffered."
He turned to look at her directly, and his eyes held something fierce and vulnerable all at once. "And then you fell through. And suddenly, my only goal was finding you. Keeping you alive. Getting you out."
"Zayne..."
"You can kill giants," he continued, a hint of wonder in his voice. "Mina taught you well. But you're also still the same person who needs someone to rely on when things get overwhelming. And I..." He paused, seeming to gather courage. "I don't mind being that person. I want to be that person."
Nana's breath caught. "Are you saying—"
"I love you." The words came out rough but certain. "I've loved you since I saw you eating pasta in the Linkon Cafe like a chaotic hamster who'd forgotten how eating worked. I loved you when you kicked Wanderers with your bare legs despite how dangerous it was. I loved you every time you came to my ER with injuries you shouldn't have survived. And I've loved you every single day of the three years I've been trapped here, wondering if I'd ever see you again."
Tears were streaming down Nana's face again, but these were different. Not grief. Not exhaustion.
Hope.
"I love you too," she whispered. "I didn't know it before—I was too focused on surviving, on being a hunter. But these months in Avalon, all I could think about was finding you. Seeing you again. Telling you that the strawberry candy mattered.the macarons mattered. That you mattered."
Zayne cupped her face in both hands, his thumbs wiping away new tears. "Then let me make you a promise. We're getting out of here. Together. I know how."
"How?"
"The Wish Bridge." His expression turned serious. "It appears during the blood moon cycle, once a year. I've been there before. I know the way. And in six weeks, when the next blood moon rises, we're going to cross it together."
"The vampire cycle." Nana felt cold despite the blanket. "Mina told me about it. Hundreds of vampires, all active at once. Anyone bitten transforms instantly.It's nearly impossible."
Zayne's smile was sharp and determined. "But we're not 'anyone,' are we? You're a hunter who can kill giants. I'm a doctor who's survived three years in hell and learned every trick this nightmare city has. Let's escape Together?"
"Together," Nana agreed, something fierce blooming in her chest. "We're getting out of here. For Mina. For Simon. For everyone we've lost."
They sat together on the rooftop as the gray sky darkened to deeper gray, two survivors who'd found each other against impossible odds.
Nana had spent months being strong, being a killing machine, burying her emotions to survive.But here, in Zayne's arms, she could finally be both—the warrior who'd learned to kill without mercy, and the woman who still needed someone to hold her while she cried.
And Zayne, who'd spent three years alone in this nightmare, finally had someone worth surviving for.
Six weeks until the blood moon.
Six weeks to prepare for the impossible.
But for tonight, they had each other.
And in Avalon's endless darkness, that was enough.
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To be continued.