The storm had not yet broken, but the sky churned violently overhead as Finn and Nadia returned to the safehouse with Elise Wyatt’s revelation burning through their veins. They carried no answers—only the weight of a name Elise whispered with trembling fear, a protector long thought dead, a shadow tied to Ruth’s deepest secrets.Finn’s mind raced, replaying every word, every tremor in Elise’s voice. Someone out there held the key to his bloodline. Someone who possessed the child Elias had hunted for decades. Someone who had remained hidden through skill, power, or desperation.But all of that vanished the instant they stepped through the bunker’s reinforced door.Because Daniella Weston was already inside.She stood near the far wall, drenched from the icy drizzle outside, mascara streaking down her cheeks, clothing torn, hair disheveled, eyes wide with feral panic. Henry had his weapon trained on her, breath shallow from his injuries, while Rowan sat rigid at the console, pale with s

Finn walked away from the abandoned greenhouse with a storm boiling beneath his skin, the night wind slicing across his face like a reminder that nothing in his life had ever been accidental, natural, or free. Every step felt heavier than the last, as though the world suddenly carried invisible strings pulling at his limbs with the kind of authority only destiny could claim. He inhaled sharply, trying to steady the shaking inside his chest, because Shawn’s words refused to settle, turning over and over like jagged debris caught in a relentless tide.Henry’s car waited near the edge of the overgrown driveway with Nadia pacing beside it, her posture tight with tension and her eyes burning with worry. The moment she saw Finn emerging alone, she rushed forward and grabbed his arm with a grip that betrayed how long she had been holding her breath in fear. “What happened?” she demanded with a voice strained by dread. “You were gone too long, Finn, and there was no signal inside that horrible

Finn moved through the corridor with fast, controlled strides, every step echoing like a warning he no longer wished to ignore, because the air itself felt swollen with betrayal, fear, and truths that refused to stay buried beneath polite silence.His shadow stretched across the cold stone floor, jagged and restless, mirroring the turmoil inside him as he headed toward the upper courtyard where members of the shadow unit were preparing for deployment, their armor glinting faintly under the silver edges of the moon.For a moment, Finn paused beneath the archway, gripping the stone column with a force he rarely used, because his hands trembled despite the discipline etched into every part of his training and upbringing.He hated that tremor—hated what it revealed about how deeply this betrayal cut into him, not as a commander, not as a Caelis heir, but as a man who had believed in someone with an almost dangerous degree of loyalty.The night wind swept in with a cold bite, carrying the s

The night pressed heavily against the reinforced windows of the safehouse as Finn tightened the straps of his tactical harness, preparing himself for the most reckless and necessary operation he had ever committed to in his turbulent, haunted life.Rowan stood behind him, surrounded by three portable control units connected with glowing threads of crimson-blue light, each thread pulsing with unstable rhythm as if the machines struggled to contain the monstrous data they had stolen, borrowed, or corrupted from LUXON’s network.Nadia paced in front of the group with sharp, restless footsteps, her eyes burning with both fear and determination as she checked blade sheaths, aura dampeners, and communication relays one last time with the intensity of someone who had memorized every failure that ever cost a life.Henry leaned against the steel counter, still pale from his injuries but refusing to sit, because he understood that Finn needed presence, not caution, from the people who mattered

The moment Finn stepped out of the psychological chamber, the air changed violently around him, as if the facility itself inhaled sharply and awakened in full predatory consciousness, responding to his presence with hostility that pulsed through every metal plate and every darkened corridor.Nadia felt the shift too, her hand immediately tightening around her blade’s hilt, eyes sharpening with instinctive recognition that the entire underground complex had transitioned from passive surveillance to active containment mode, preparing to crush intruders with brutal efficiency.Henry limped forward, ignoring the pain radiating along his ribs, because he sensed Finn slipping from shock into deadly clarity, the kind of focused rage that made him capable of breaking every wall LUXON placed between him and the truth hidden beneath this cursed facility.Rowan’s voice exploded through their comm pieces, laced with panic and static. “Finn! Something is happening. The system is rerouting all psyc