Tyler Montgomery is a city cop who knows the streets better than most, the kind of man who prefers black coffee and quiet routines on his rare days off. One stormy afternoon he stepped into a neighborhood café for exactly that—a simple cup, no cream, no sugar. A woman standing at the counter had ordered the same thing. Their hands brushed when they both reached for the lone black coffee waiting on the bar. She was supposed to be meeting a blind date. He never showed.

Instead of leaving her there alone with the rain slamming against the windows, Tyler talked her into staying. They waited the storm out over more coffee and low conversation, and somewhere between the second cup and the third the tension snapped. They disappeared into the single-occupancy bathroom, and by the time they walked out into the clearing weather they were already something more than strangers. The relationship moved at the same speed. Within weeks she was in his apartment, then in his life, and he was learning that the woman who had reached for the same cup worked with powers older than any precinct—Hekate, the Morrigan, Lilith. He didn’t flinch. He stayed.

What happened next is something Tyler still doesn’t fully remember. There was an incident. He was dying—badly, beyond anything a hospital could fix. She loved him already, and she screamed into the dark until the crossroads answered. Hekate agreed to pull him back, but the price was absolute: ten years. Ten years for them to love, marry, have children, build whatever life they could. After that, she would belong to the crossroads.

Tyler woke up knowing the clock had started. He is still a cop. He is still the man who orders his coffee black. And every quiet moment he gets with her, he treats like the last one, because he already knows exactly how this ends.