"I'm sorry," she managed. Voice breaking. "I'm so sorry. I thought. I thought if I told everyone. If I warned you all. You'd try to stop Jake. You'd try to find another way. And the Shadow Heart showed me. Showed me every other timeline failed. Every other option ended with everyone dead. With the Council rising. With humanity enslaved. This was the only way. The only path. The only chance. I had to. I had to let it happen. Even though it killed me inside. Even though I hated myself for it. Even though—""Stop."Jake's voice. Weak. Tired. But firm. Cutting through the argument. Through the anger. Through everything.Everyone looked at him. Alive but pale. Breathing but strained. Resurrected but carrying impossible weight."Stop blaming Mei Ling," Jake said. Each word careful. Each breath measured. "She did what I asked her to do. I told her not to tell you all. I made her keep the secret. Because I knew. I knew if everyone knew. You'd try to stop me. You'd try to protect me. You'd try

Everyone in the room looked up. Sora stopped pacing. Lin's hand froze over Elijah. Elena and Maria went quiet. Marcus's ancient warrior instincts kicked in, body already shifting toward threat assessment mode."Derek Mitchell," Lily choked out. "He's been using me. Manipulating me. Got information about you. About Titan. About everything. He showed me photos. Articles. Made me suspicious of you and Sora. I didn't know—" Her voice broke. "I didn't know he was working for someone. He's been feeding them intelligence."Jake's blood went cold. Actually cold. Like someone dumped ice water directly into his veins.Derek Mitchell. Third generation construction empire heir. The guy who beat Jake half to death when Jake was still washing dishes, still nobody, still just trying to survive. That was a year ago. Felt like a decade.Jake thought Derek was done. Thought the universe had settled that score when Derek's family empire collapsed, when his father went to prison, when everything Derek bu

Before he could ask, a doctor emerged from the surgical wing. Blue scrubs. Tired eyes. The kind of exhaustion that came from saving lives and losing them in equal measure.Jake stood up so fast his chair skidded backward.The doctor pulled down her mask. "Family of Lily Adams?""Friend," Jake said. "Close friend. How is she?""She'll make it." The doctor's expression softened. Actually smiled. "Lost a lot of blood but the bullet missed all major organs. Lodged in muscle tissue. We removed it. Stitched her up. She's stable. Critical but improving. She got very lucky."Jake's legs nearly gave out. Sora caught his elbow. Steadied him."Can I see her?" Jake asked."She's in recovery. Still under anesthesia. Give it a few hours. We'll let you know when she's awake."The doctor left. Back through the surgical doors. Back to save more lives. Back to fix more broken people.Jake sat down. Put his head in his ha

The old pier looked worse at midnight than Jake imagined.He stood at the far end where the wood met open water. The boards creaked under his feet. Some were rotting through completely. He could see dark water between the gaps. Smell salt and decay and something else. Something chemical that didn't belong.The moon hung fat and yellow overhead. Enough light to see by but not much. Shadows pooled everywhere. The warehouse buildings behind the pier were hollow shells. Windows broken. Graffiti layered thick. Places where homeless people had camped before even they decided it wasn't worth it.Jake activated his Hearts. All four at once. The power surge felt like drinking lightning.Dragon's Heart Crystal blazed white on his finger. Pure light that pushed back the darkness. Midnight Tear responded, wrapping him in living shadows that moved independent of the moonlight. Crimson Heart pumped molten energy through his veins. He could feel his pulse in his teeth. Storm Heart crackled, electric

Marcus frowned. His three thousand year old brain working through possibilities."I'm not certain," he admitted. "There were rumors. Before we sealed the Council. Whispers of something else. Something that built their cities. Their prisons. But we never confirmed it."He pulled out his phone. Started typing rapidly."I need to check the archives. The old records. There might be something in the scrolls we preserved.""How long will that take, sir?" Sora asked."Give me an hour. Maybe less." Marcus was already walking toward the SUV. "I have copies of the ancient texts stored digitally. Translations. Cross references. If there's information about this master, I'll find it."They piled into the vehicle. Marcus drove. One hand on the wheel, one hand scrolling through files on his phone at red lights.Dangerous. Illegal. Neither seemed to matter right now.Jake sat in the back with Sora. The Whisperer had gone quiet. Unusually quiet. That was almost worse than the screaming.'What are you