She placed a thick folder on the table and slid it toward them. Malik hesitated before opening it, his brows furrowing as he flipped through the pages.Documents. Shipments. Evidence of Silas bleeding them dry behind their backs.Juliet spoke for the first time, her voice cool.“Silas doesn’t see you as allies. He sees you as pawns. And pawns get sacrificed.”Malik’s hand tightened into a fist. He had lost men recently. Too many. And now, the proof sat right in front of him.Vincent muttered a curse, shaking his head.“If we do this, there’s no going back.”Louis finally leaned forward, meeting their gazes head-on.“There’s no ‘if.’ You’re already in a war. The only question is whether you want to win.”Silence.Then, Malik closed the folder and exhaled. “Fine.” He met Louis’s gaze. “We’re in.”A flicker of triumph crossed Pearl’s face, but she masked it quickly. One down. More to go.An hour later, the deal was set. Louis had gained new allies, and The Obsidian Ring had lost its grip

The gunshot cracked through the night.Louis dove sideways, twisting mid-air as the bullet grazed past his ribs, a searing line of fire blooming across his skin. He hit the ground hard, rolling behind a steel crate just as another silenced round slammed into the container’s edge. Sparks flew.Ghost was fast. Too fast.Adrenaline pumped through Louis’s veins, but his mind stayed sharp, calculating. His body was trained for this, conditioned for survival in the face of death. But this wasn’t just an assassin—this was something else.No wasted movement. No hesitation. No fear.Pearl had already vanished into the shadows, her natural hunting instincts kicking in. If she could get an angle, they might stand a chance. But Louis knew this fight was his.He pressed his back against the cold metal, listening. The world shrank to sounds—his own breathing, the distant crash of waves against the dock, the steady rhythm of footsteps.Ghost wasn’t running. He was walking. Hunting.Louis’s fingers g

Louis had faced elite fighters before. Killers. Assassins. But this? This was something else entirely.Ghost wasn’t just fast—he was impossibly precise. His body reacted before his mind did, his movements so fluid that they seemed preordained, as if his reflexes had been ripped straight from a simulation.Louis barely managed to block the first attack.Ghost’s knee shot toward his ribs—Louis twisted at the last second, but not fast enough. The impact sent a shockwave of pain rattling through his torso. It felt like getting kicked by a steel piston.Fuck.Louis stumbled but caught himself. He couldn’t afford mistakes. Not now.Ghost was already coming for the next strike—left hook, low feint, upward jab. It was too fast, but Louis had spent a lifetime learning how to adapt.He wasn’t the strongest. He wasn’t the fastest. But he was the smartest.He tilted his body just slightly, forcing Ghost’s jab to barely graze his chin rather than snap his neck. A controlled miss.Ghost adjusted in

Pearl’s body tensed immediately. “You’re telling me this thing—” she gestured toward Louis, “—was made specifically to kill him?”Juliet shook her head. “Not just him.”She turned her screen, flashing an encrypted list that sent a shiver down Louis’s spine.Names. Birthdates. Genealogical data.Juliet pointed at the top. “They’ve mapped out your entire family line. Not just you, Louis—your parents, your extended relatives, anyone remotely connected to your lineage.”Louis didn’t react immediately. His mind sifted through old memories—names and faces from a past he had long since buried.His mother. His father. Gone.But his uncle, distant cousins—they were still out there.Pearl exhaled slowly. “How far have they gotten?”Juliet clicked through more files, her jaw tightening. “They’re not testing it on the streets yet. Not on live populations.”Pearl folded her arms. “Then where?”Juliet’s face darkened. “A facility. One of The Obsidian Ring’s black sites. The files list it as Lockdow

The underground lab was a maze of sterile white corridors, the air thick with the scent of disinfectant and something darker, more sinister.Juliet led the way, eyes darting between the blueprint on her tablet and the hallways stretching before them. “The main server room is ahead. If I can access the controls, I can wipe every trace of the virus.”Louis glanced at Pearl. “Stay sharp.”They moved in silence, shadows slipping through the corridors. Every step was calculated. Every turn a possible ambush.And then—They found the test chamber.A glass-walled room in the center of the facility, cold and sterile.Inside, strapped to a medical table—Elias Kindsor.Louis’s stomach clenched. His uncle looked barely alive. His skin pale, his body hooked up to machines.Pearl moved toward the glass. “What the hell did they do to him?”Juliet scanned the monitors. Her face darkened.“He’s the live test subject,” she whispered.Louis felt a slow, creeping rage coil in his chest.His uncle wasn’