THE KING’S VESTIGE

Chapter 7

Celessa Thorne didn't hunt like a predator. She collected like a god.

Kade's phone rang at three in the morning. He answered without checking the caller ID. Only a handful of people had this number, and all of them knew better than to call unless it was important.

"Hello, Kade." The voice was smooth and cold, like expensive whiskey poured over ice. "Or should I call you Marcus Chen? That was the name you used at the auction, wasn't it?"

He sat up in bed and went completely still. "Who is this?"

"You don't recognize my voice?" She laughed, and the sound made his skin crawl. "I suppose it has been a long time. Ten years since you ran away. Ten years since I had to explain to your father why his son abandoned him after everything we did for your family."

Celessa.

"How did you get this number?" Kade kept his voice calm even though his heart was pounding.

"I own half the telecommunications companies in this region and have friends in the other half. Getting a phone number is child's play." She paused, and he heard her take a sip of something. "What's more interesting is how you managed to get five million dollars in untraceable funds. That kind of money doesn't just appear, which means you've been planning this for quite some time."

"Planning what?"

"Don't insult my intelligence." Her voice got sharper. "You disrupted my auction. Stole merchandise that I had specifically tagged. Used military-grade encryption and ghost credentials that suggest you have access to resources far beyond what a normal person should have." Another pause. "Tell me, Kade, what exactly did you do for the last ten years?"

He stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the city. "I learned."

"Learned what?"

"How to become someone you can't control."

She was quiet for so long he thought she had hung up. Then she spoke again, and this time her voice sounded almost pleased.

"Interesting. You know, most people who run from me spend their lives hiding and hoping I'll forget about them. But you didn't hide, did you? You built something. Became something. The King of the North." She said the title like she was tasting it. "I've read the reports about you. How you ended a decade-long war with a single battle strategy. How entire armies surrendered just hearing your name. Very impressive."

"Get to the point."

"The point is that you're not the scared little boy who ran away anymore. You're dangerous now. Capable. That makes you far more valuable to me alive than dead." He heard her set down whatever she had been drinking. "I have a proposition for you."

"Not interested."

"You haven't even heard it yet." She sounded amused. "What if I told you that I could give you everything you want? Your sister stays free. Your aunt recovers in peace. You get to live your life without looking over your shoulder. All you have to do is stop whatever you're planning and come work for me."

"Work for you." Kade repeated the words slowly. "The woman who killed my mother."

"Your mother killed herself." Her voice went cold again. "She jumped out a window because she couldn't handle the consequences of her own actions. I had nothing to do with it."

"You're lying."

"Am I?" She laughed again. "Prove it. Show me one piece of evidence that connects me to her death. One witness. One document. One single thing that would hold up in any court." Silence. "You can't because it doesn't exist. Your mother was mentally unstable. She made a choice. You've spent ten years blaming me for something I didn't do."

Kade wanted to reach through the phone and strangle her. Instead, he just gripped the edge of the window frame until his knuckles went white.

"Here's what I think happened." Celessa kept talking like she was explaining something to a child. "I think you've built this entire narrative in your head where I'm the villain and you're the hero. If you just fight hard enough, you'll get justice. But justice is a fairy tale, Kade. The only thing that matters in this world is power. Right now, I have all of it. You have none."

"We'll see about that."

The line went dead.

Kade stood there holding the phone and staring out at the city, trying to process everything she had just said.

His phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number: Sending you a gift. Check your hotel lobby in ten minutes.

He went down to the lobby. The receptionist pointed to a package sitting on the front desk with his room number written on it.

Kade took it back upstairs and opened it carefully. Celessa seemed like the type to send explosives just to make a point.

Inside was a folder containing photographs and documents. He spread them out on the bed and felt his blood turn to ice.

There were pictures of Lyric getting out of Marcus's car at the safe house, pictures of Aunt Mira in the hospital bed, and pictures of every single person he had contacted in the last forty-eight hours.

At the bottom was a handwritten note on expensive paper: I told you I own everything. This includes your secrets. Stop now and everyone you love stays safe. Continue, and I'll show you exactly what happens when someone challenges a god.

The note wasn't signed, but it didn't need to be.

Kade gathered up all the photos and documents and burned them in the bathroom sink, watching the evidence turn to ash.

Then he made a call.

"Move Lyric to the backup location now."

"Sir, is there a problem?"

"Celessa knows where she is. Get her out in the next ten minutes or don't bother coming back."

He hung up and sat on the edge of the bed, thinking about what Celessa had said.

She didn't just want to beat him. She wanted to own him, control him, and turn him into another asset in her collection.

She was right about one thing: the system would protect itself, which meant he couldn't attack the system directly.

He needed to attack the person who controlled it.

His phone rang again. This time he checked the caller ID.

Thorne Caspian.

Kade answered, and Caspian's voice came through shaking and scared. "She told me to give you a message."

"What message?"

"Tell my nephew to stop hiding. Blood always comes home.”