The morning after the collapse, Braxton City walked with a grim quiet. Streets that normally hummed with machinery and rebuilding efforts now felt subdued, as if the city itself was holding its breath.Inside Braxton Tower, Ethan stood in the strategy room with Marcus, reviewing the structural schematics on a large holographic table. Lines of calculations, stress maps, and engineering logs floated in pale blue light.“What do you see?” Ethan asked, eyes sharp.Marcus zoomed in on the frame that had given way. “This is what’s bothering me. The support beam that collapsed wasn’t overloaded. It wasn’t cracked. It wasn’t rusted. It was… cut.”Ethan frowned. “Not broken?”“Cut. Deliberately.” Marcus highlighted a cross-section of the beam. Instead of jagged damage, the metal had a smooth, precise edge.Ethan’s jaw clenched. “Whoever did this didn’t want it to look natural. They wanted casualties.”Leanna entered the room quietly, a cup of hot tea in her hands. She overheard the last senten

Heat rolled upward in thick, suffocating waves. Sparks rained down from the metal rods below, each one a warning that the electrical lines were seconds away from exploding. Ethan’s fingers burned as he clung to the splintered floor edge, the wood breaking under his weight.He tried pulling himself up again,the board snapped another inch.Smoke seeped into his lungs. His eyes watered. The fire was spreading fast, the fuel lines hissing like angry snakes beneath the walls. Korrin hadn’t set a trap meant to scare him.He’d built a furnace.Ethan forced himself to breathe slowly. Panic was death. Pain was just noise. He had survived worse. He would survive this.He shifted his weight just enough to hook his left foot against a piece of bent metal jutting from the pit wall. It held….barely. Using it, he pushed upward, muscles shaking.Another board cracked.He had one chance.With a strained growl, Ethan swung his body sideways, trying to reach a support beam sticking out from the pit’s inn

The penthouse lights glowed gold against the night sky, bright enough to be seen across the city. Inside, Korrin lounged in a velvet chair, swirling a glass of aged whiskey with a satisfied smirk stretched across his face.Rain tapped softly against the floor-to-ceiling windows, but inside the room, everything felt warm, calm, perfect.Exactly how Korrin liked it.His assistant, Darrin, stood nervously near the door as Korrin replayed the footage from the trap. Frame by frame. Slow-motion. Watching Ethan fall toward the pit, fire bursting upward.Korrin chuckled.“That,” he said, raising his glass, “is the beauty of a well-crafted design. No loose ends.”Darrin swallowed. “Sir… about the body…..”Korrin shut him up with a look sharp enough to cut steel.“He fell into a burning death chamber.” Korrin waved the glass casually. “There is no body. Ash doesn’t leave a corpse behind.”“But….”“Darrin,” Korrin said with a smile too calm to be sane, “are you genuinely suggesting Ethan Braxton

The doors of the High Council chamber slammed open so hard they rattled against the marble walls. Every council member jumped. Some rose to their feet. Some recoiled. All of them stared as Leanna marched in….filthy with smoke and ash, eyes blazing, jaw clenched like she had been carved from wrath itself.“Lady Leanna,” Councilor Varron stammered, “this is a closed session….”“It’s open now,” Leanna snapped, her voice echoing through the chamber.She didn’t ask permission to step forward. She didn’t bow. She didn’t wait to be acknowledged. She took the center of the room as if she owned it…because right then, her fury made her larger than all of them combined.The council pit murmured with unease. These were the most powerful officials in Braxton City, people who could silence governors with a gesture. Yet none of them dared speak first.Leanna swept her gaze across them, stopping on each face long enough to make them look away.“Ethan is fighting for his life,” she said, her voice sha

The council chamber doors slid open with a heavy groan, the sound echoing across the wide circular room. Twelve seats curved around the central platform….each raised slightly higher than the next, as if designed to look down on anyone who stood in the center.Leanna entered without hesitation.Her steps were calm.Her expression unreadable.Her anger cold, controlled, and sharpened into purpose.The council members stiffened as she approached. The last time she had been in this room, she had stormed in like lightning. Now she moved like a blade…silent, precise, impossible to ignore.Councilor Wynn cleared her throat first, obviously nervous. “Director Leanna. Thank you for coming so quickly.”Leanna stopped in the center of the chamber. “You summoned me. Speak.”A murmur rippled through the seated councilors….half offended, half afraid.Director Hale stepped forward. “We have concerns regarding your conduct. Your outburst earlier…”“My ‘outburst’?” she repeated, tilting her head. “You m