Every nook and cranny of the deserted Pentagon annex was covered in dust, which drifted in motes and was illuminated by a single, flickering fluorescent lightbulb. As Tatiana approached the metal cabinet with the label "Classified – Level Omega," her boots reverberated against the chilly concrete floor. Heat pulsed across her chest where the phoenix tattoo had started to burn hours before as her fingers hovered over the rusting handle. Benjamin's distinctive insignia, a jagged crown entwined with a snake, was stamped on the wax-sealed envelope that Alexander had just handed."Why now?" With a tense yet composed voice, Tatiana whispered beneath her breath. As though the envelope itself were mocking her, the heat on her chest blazed once more.Behind her, Alexander was a heavy but silent presence. He was human and mortal, but he still had a controlled intensity that made her spine tense. His wings were folded neatly against his back and were now totally retracted. "Because it's time," h

Benjamin's sturdy, youthful, and terrifyingly composed figure emerged fully through the fractured mirror. His well-tailored suit glinted in the Penthouse lights, but it was his eyes, the same icy, cunning stare that had plagued Tatiana's thoughts and nightmares, that held her motionless. He exuded threat and authority in every way.Alexander stood a little in front of Tatiana and Mira, but his wings were now completely retracted, making him look horribly mortal and human. Despite his clinched fists and taut jaw, he had a strange look of admiration in his eyes. Benjamin had come back; he was real. alive. And more perilous than before.At first, Benjamin's speech was measured, quiet, and almost mesmerizing. "Alexander, Tatiana, the years of deity-playing, power struggles, and acting as though the past could be changed are ended. I am present. And I have to regain everything that is mine.Beneath her jacket, Tatiana's fingers jerked toward her gun. Uncertainty tore at her resolve, but he

An omen engraved into the heavens, the sky over Washington, D.C. has taken on an unusual green hue. The impossibility of a time siege and an army of 2018 Benjamins advancing with flawless, mechanical precision, bursting out the opening Pentagon gateway like resurrected ghosts of the past, made Harrington Tower tremble. Each soldier had sleek but antiquated weaponry from a different era, and they all fired in uncanny unison while maintaining the same, uncanny unity of Benjamin's eyes.Tatiana observed the mayhem from the penthouse. With their tiny hands engaged in a tug-of-war between two enormous legacies, the toddler Miras, who had fire eyes and ice eyes, clutched to their respective fathers and pulled. Every step the soldiers took caused the floor under them to vibrate, and the walls trembled as the building groaned from the pressure of time and physical force.Tatiana's gaze raced across the battlefield until she caught sight of the twins, Ash and Phoenix, with their wings half-for

"Bad," they said. Don't just hang in the air, Daddy. They made an attack.It was a physical blow to Alexander, a lance of cold, unadulterated rejection that went right through his sternum, through the new "MIRA" tattoo, and into the deteriorating muscle underneath. The world did not darken. It turned white. The leaning tower, the yelling wind, and his enemy's face were all wiped out by a burning, silent white.That little accusing finger was all that was left. The first thing his son said. Not "mama." Not a coo. a decision.Not good.A powerful, twisting shudder went through his already torn and battered heart. It wasn't a seizure. It was a submission. The truth uttered by his own blood was acknowledged in a final, fatal way. A deep, cold numbness crept up his limbs, replacing the radiated pain. His eyes narrowed. At the edges, the white turned to gray static. His knees unlocked.He remained upright. With a gentle, last thump, he collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut, strik

At that height, the wind was a live, predatory force that desired to free Mira from the steel needle and disperse her around the city like a dandelion seed. With her feet perched on a service rung and her other arm struggling to keep the improvised flag high, she clung with one tiny hand. With a little gunshot sound against the death rattle of the tower, the laminated nanny pass broke and snapped.They looked up from the penthouse's sloping hell, a scene of broken adults.For a brief moment, Tatiana's heart stopped beating for no apparent reason related to serum. "MIRA!" The wind tore the name from her lungs. her first child. Every loop was her compass. How was she up there? The stairs were a crumbling labyrinth, and the elevators were dead. There was no way. And yet there she was, the young child who used crayons to draw phantom daddies, now standing at the top of the literal and figurative devastation they had all created.Alexander beheld her through clouded eyesight, consciousness