The underground facility buzzed with quiet efficiency, footsteps echoing against steel, murmured reports passed down narrow halls, the low hum of machines that never seemed to rest. Seth sat on the edge of his bunk, rolling his shoulders, testing muscles that only a week ago had been mangled and useless. Now they thrummed with energy.With power, strength and freedom.It was back. All of it.He flexed his hand into a fist, then relaxed it, watching the way his veins pulsed beneath his skin. The limiters were gone, the inhibitors burned out of his system. Every cell felt sharper, lighter, alive in a way that made him restless.And restless was dangerous.Lucas stood near the holographic display table, his usual composed self. His eyes tracked the shifting blueprints projected above the surface... the Tyrel estate’s blue print, patrol routes, and data feeds that scrolled in lines of code too fast for Seth to follow.“We move in two days,” Lucas said, voice steady. “Any sooner and we ris

The mansion at night was a different creature altogether.Gone were the constant footsteps of servants, the clattering of silver trays, and the droning voices of family politics echoing through marble halls. Now there was only silence, broken occasionally by the groan of old wood or the distant shuffle of a guard’s boots against polished floors.Rennard’s heart hammered in his chest as he crept through the eastern wing, a single candle clutched in his trembling hand. The flame flickered wildly every time he exhaled too hard, threatening to snuff out and leave him blind in the darkness.“Just get the key,” he whispered under his breath, as if the words themselves could steady his shaking fingers. “Just one little key. That’s all.”It should have been simple. The steward’s office was small, tucked away near the servants’ quarters. Everyone important was asleep. No one would miss him for five minutes. But the weight of what he was doing pressed down on him harder than the silence itself.

The night air was colder here, sharper, like the forest itself was holding its breath. Seth crouched low at the ridge overlooking the Tyrel estate, the sprawl of manicured gardens and marble towers glowing faintly beneath the watchful eyes of lanterns and guards on patrol. To anyone else it looked like a beautiful magnificent fortress. To Seth, it looked like a gilded trap.Lucas knelt beside him, adjusting the scope on his compact glass viewer. The faint whir of the device broke the silence as he scanned the grounds below. Seth said nothing, but his jaw was locked, eyes fixed on the mansion like a man staring down an old enemy.It had been weeks since he had last seen Rose. Weeks since the betrayal of her trust, the fracture of words unspoken. And now, every step closer to her world felt like a blade pressed against his ribs.Lucas finally lowered the scope and passed it over. “Rumors were right. Security’s been doubled at the gates. Servants moving at odd hours. Someone in there’s s

Seth’s POVSeth had waited long enough. Lucas’s warnings still rang in his ears, but the time for patience was over. He wasn’t going to sit in the shadows while Rose drifted further into a world where he had no voice.The Tyrel estate loomed ahead, all polished stone walls and towering gates. He moved with quiet certainty, rehearsing the story he’d crafted in his mind. If Rose’s grandfather, Mr. Mason, remained the same man he remembered, the visit would be welcomed rather than questioned.Two guards at the entrance stiffened as he approached, their hands on their belts. Seth raised a hand in casual greeting.“I’m here to pay a visit to Mr. Mason. Tell him Seth has come by.”The guards exchanged glances, then one nodded and went inside. Seth stood there, unbothered, his face calm, though his thoughts pulsed with impatience. After a few moments, the doors opened and the guard returned, bowing slightly.“You may enter. Mr. Mason has been expecting you, though he didn’t know it.”Seth sm

Vin’s POVVin closed the servant’s door behind her with a quiet click, pressing her back against the cold wood as if the panel itself could shield her from the pounding inside her chest. On the outside, she had smiled and bowed like an obedient maid, her voice a gentle lilt of apology for startling young Master Seth. Inside, every muscle in her body still thrummed like a bowstring stretched to its breaking point.She forced a slow breath through her nose. 'Calm down, smile, breathe. You are still in control.'Except she wasn’t. Not completely.The moment replayed in her mind with maddening clarity, the flash of Seth’s eyes when she lunged, the way his wrist moved just a fraction before hers, intercepting her dagger as if he’d been waiting for it. He shouldn’t have been that fast. He shouldn’t have been standing at all.Wasn’t he supposed to be dead?Her men had been so sure. “Seth fell down the cliff,” her lieutenant said. “The body was never recovered, but the drop was final.” And if