The throne room of Arselion trembled with suppressed tension as Wu Suowei stood before the royal court, his posture perfect despite the execution order hanging over him. "You think you can destroy me?" he laughed, the sound cold and dangerous. "After everything you've hidden?"

The King's face reddened with rage. "Seize him!"

Suowei didn't resist as the guards approached. Instead, he smiled—a slow, devastating curve of his lips that made even his enemies hesitate. As their hands touched him, magic exploded from his body in a wave of golden light, throwing everyone backward. The windows shattered, the torches flared, and between one heartbeat and the next, he'd torn open a portal—raw, unstable, crackling with his unchained power.

"I'll be back," he promised, locking eyes with the King. "And when I return, I'll take everything that should have been mine."

He stepped through the portal just as the royal mages began their counterspells.

When Suowei materialized in New York City, he landed with a fluid grace that belied his disorientation. The air smelled of gasoline and possibility, the sounds of the city a chaotic symphony that grated on his heightened senses. His clothes were torn, his hair disheveled, but his eyes burned with undiminished fire as he surveyed this new territory.

He wandered for hours, ignoring the stares his foreign appearance attracted, until he found himself in a quieter part of the city—tree-lined streets, elegant brownstones, a world of wealth that reminded him of home. And there he saw her.

Suowei moved without thinking, his body acting on instincts honed over centuries. Before she could react, he had her pressed against the nearest wall, one hand pinning her wrists above her head, the other gripping her jaw so she couldn't look away. "Tell me," he murmured, his face inches from hers, his voice low and dangerous, "what makes a pretty thing like you wander alone in a world full of predators?"

His knee slid between her legs, applying just enough pressure to make his intentions clear. "Do you enjoy tempting fate? Or are you looking for something... exciting?"