Cresmont wasn’t a city anymore.It was a graveyard in waiting.The streets, once filled with the chaos of life—markets buzzing, cars honking, people pushing through sidewalks—had transformed into silent warzones.Burned-out buildings, shattered glass, the distant crack of gunfire.Elias had pushed Cresmont to the brink of collapse.And Kael had pushed him right back.But now?Now, there was one last warning.If Kael didn’t stop, if he didn’t walk away, there would be nothing left to save.But that was the problem, wasn’t it?Kael had nothing left to walk away to.MIDNIGHT’S WARNINGThe message arrived at midnight.Marcus had been on guard duty, slouched in a chair near the door, cigarette dangling between his fingers. He caught the movement just in time—a shadow slipping through the alley, the whisper of an envelope sliding under the door.Marcus was on his feet instantly, gun drawn.Kael didn’t even flinch.Because he already knew.Whoever sent it wasn’t afraid.Kael bent down, picke

The FacilityThe facility loomed ahead, shrouded in the weight of its own silence.It was a ghost of what it once was—hulking structures of steel and concrete, worn down by time yet still standing with an eerie defiance. Rusted gates groaned as the wind slipped through their hollow bars, whispering secrets to those who dared to listen.Kael had expected chaos. A battlefield. The aftermath of something brutal—shattered glass, bullet casings, bloodstains on the walls.Instead, he was met with nothing.No guards. No alarms. No bodies.Just emptiness.His boots crunched against gravel as he stepped forward, the sound unnervingly loud against the quiet. Marcus, walking beside him, muttered a curse under his breath.“I don’t like this.”Pamela moved ahead, scanning the desolate expanse. The tension in her shoulders sharpened. “We’re too late.”Selene knelt near the entrance, her fingers skimming over the cold concrete. She was meticulous, her eyes sharp as she searched for something—anythin

Kael Kael stood at the gates of the abandoned compound, his breath slow, measured, but his mind was a storm. This was it. The location they had spent weeks chasing. The last known trace of his so-called third brother. The man who had erased him. The man who had erased Elias. The man who had stayed invisible while manipulating their entire war. Kael had expected a fight. Expected defenses, traps, something. But instead— Nothing. The place was empty. Too clean. Too perfect. Like no one had ever been here. The iron gates loomed before them, rusted yet oddly sturdy, as if decay had been allowed only where it was convenient. The air was thick with something unspoken—an absence so deliberate it felt suffocating. Beside him, Marcus exhaled sharply, his stance tense. His hand hovered near his weapon, muscles coiled like a spring. “I don’t like this,” he muttered. Selene ran a hand along the rusted gate, her brow furrowing. “There’s no dust buildup,” she murmured. “No signs o

A heavy silence settled over the room.Not the kind that came with exhaustion or hesitation.This silence was alive. Thick. Suffocating.The air itself seemed to press in, dense with the weight of something unspeakable.Kael stared at the file, pulse pounding in his ears like war drums. His fingers hovered over the page, hesitant to turn it, as if doing so might shatter the last fragile thread of reason holding everything together.The name printed across the last page shouldn’t have existed.Shouldn’t have been possible.And yet—There it was.The architect of everything.A name that had been buried beneath decades of erased history, wiped clean from every database, silenced beneath government cover-ups and false wars.A name that should have died with the past.But it hadn’t.Kael’s grip on the folder tightened until his knuckles turned white, the paper threatening to crumple under his fingers. His lungs burned as he held his breath, willing his mind to make sense of what he was see

Kael pushed himself upright, the weight of the blast still pressing down on him like an invisible force. Every muscle in his body ached, his limbs sluggish as he forced them to obey. His ears rang with a sharp, high-pitched whine, muting the chaos around him. The world was spinning—tilting dangerously—before snapping back into focus.Smoke thickened the air, curling in heavy, toxic waves that burned the inside of his throat with every breath. He could taste metal, gunpowder, something chemical and unnatural clinging to his tongue.The bunker was gone.Where there had once been a reinforced steel entrance, fortified by layers of encrypted clearance and armed guards, there was now only a smoldering crater. The explosion had torn through concrete and steel like paper, leaving behind jagged ruins that jutted from the earth like the skeletal remains of something long dead. Flames crackled, licking hungrily at the debris, throwing eerie shadows against the night.The destruction was absolut