Rain pelted the balcony, stinging Adrian’s face as he vaulted over the railing. The wind roared in his ears, drowning out Emily’s muffled scream.Silas was already halfway down the building, descending like it was second nature, boots finding invisible footholds along the slick glass exterior. Emily struggled in his grip, but every twist she made was countered with a brutal precision that told Adrian this wasn’t the first hostage Silas had taken."Let her go!" Adrian’s voice was lost to the wind.He grabbed the maintenance cable that ran along the balcony’s edge and slid down, gloves burning with friction. The thirty floors below blurred together in flashes of lightning. Silas didn’t look up but Adrian saw his head tilt just slightly, the way a predator notices another predator.Silas swung himself onto a lower balcony, smashing the sliding door with one hard kick. Adrian landed seconds later, splintering glass under his boots.The condo they’d crashed into was dark, lit only by the s

Rain still poured, drumming on the rooftop like a funeral march. Adrian leaned over the ledge, scanning the shadows below where Silas had fallen or vanished. No body. No splash. Nothing. Behind him, Emily stirred, letting out a soft moan.Adrian spun around and knelt by her side. Her face was pale, soaked, lips trembling. “You’re safe,” he whispered. She blinked, dazed. “What... happened?”Grayson holstered his gun, stepping back from the edge. “He’s gone. For now.” Adrian helped Emily sit up. “They said my father was part of this. Was that a lie too?”Grayson didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he reached into his coat and pulled out a small, waterproof dossier. “Your father left more than just a name behind. This... this is your inheritance.” Adrian took the folder. Inside were old photos, blueprints, and a single page titled: ‘The Twelve Trials of the Consortium’.“I thought I was already the heir,” Adrian said, confused. “You are. But not the final one. You’re the successor. Your

The spotlight burned white against the polished boardroom table, casting stark shadows across the faces frozen in shock. The chairman’s body sagged forward, his forehead resting against the mahogany surface, a crimson pool spreading beneath him.For a moment, no one moved. The world outside the glass wall seemed distant, the city lights cold and indifferent. Inside, the air was heavy with the metallic scent of blood and the faint tang of gunpowder.Adrian’s pulse was a war drum in his ears. His gaze flicked over the room, mapping movement, searching for the attacker. The assassin who had gone for him was gone vanished into the shadows.Then chaos erupted. “What the hell just happened?!” a board member shouted, his voice high with panic.“Security! Someone call security!” another yelled, fumbling with her phone. The woman with razor sharp cheekbones was already backing toward the exit. “This is a coup,” she hissed, eyes darting toward Adrian. Coup? The word struck like a blade.Adrian’

The city never truly slept, but tonight it felt different. Even from his apartment on the 42nd floor, Adrian could feel the pulse of unseen eyes tracking him.The skyscraper fire was still smoldering, the smoke twisting like ghostly fingers against the night sky. He hadn’t slept. Couldn’t. Every instinct screamed that someone was moving, calculating, waiting.Emily’s words from earlier echoed in his mind. “The traitor is watching.” He had replayed them over and over, trying to catch the hidden meaning, the subtle clues she might have dropped. But nothing had prepared him for what he saw tonight.His first move was the blade. He examined it carefully, feeling the strange weight in his hand. The metal was cold, but it hummed faintly, almost alive, like it held a pulse of its own.Not ordinary steel. Adrian knew that this weapon had been designed for precision fast, silent, lethal. And its presence meant the consortium’s enemies weren’t just bold they were organized. He needed informatio

The city was a labyrinth of neon lights, dark alleyways, and smoke curling from alley fires. Adrian and Emily moved like phantoms, sticking to shadows, their senses heightened with each step.Every sound, a distant siren, the drip of rainwater, the screech of a tire felt amplified, warning them of unseen threats.The rider’s message 'Checkmate' burned in Adrian’s mind. It wasn’t just a threat. It was a declaration. She controlled the game now, dictating every move, forcing him into reaction rather than action.“Where do we go?” Emily whispered, her voice tense.Adrian’s eyes scanned the cityscape. “We lead them into the open. Somewhere we can see them coming, somewhere we can fight on our terms.” Emily nodded, gripping the steel blade he had taken from the rider. “And if we can’t?”“Then we die trying,” he said, voice low but steady.They slipped into a network of abandoned warehouses on the outskirts of the city, a place Adrian had scouted months before when mapping the consortium’s