LOGINAmber POVI couldn't breathe."Jason?""He's alive."The entire room stopped.Mrs. Sun stood. Noah closed his eyes, and Grandpa's shoulders dropped as if he'd been carrying something impossibly heavy."Say it again.""Jason is alive. He's unconscious, but he's breathing on his own. Weak pulse, dehydration, blood loss, multiple injuries and possible head trauma. We're stabilizing him for extraction."Tears blurred my vision."You're with him?""Right beside him.""Don't leave.""I won't.""What happened?""We're still piecing it together. There was a fight in a lower chamber. Mr. White was there.""Where is he?""Gone. He escaped through another passage. Three of his men are in custody."At least we had something."Jasmine?""She's alive."Beside me, Noah released a breath so sharply that I heard it.Then Emory continued."She was shot in the upper arm. Through-and-through. It's not critical, but she lost some blood. We're taking her to the hospital with Jason.""What the fuck?"I turn
Amber POVMarcus went after Jasmine, and for almost two hours I waited at the castle for the next update.Before Jasmine left, I had personally attached her tracker to her gear. I had tested it twice, made sure it was transmitting, and connected my tablet as an emergency receiver. I hadn't intended to monitor her every second from the castle. The actual tracking equipment for both Jasmine and Marcus was posted at the command center at the mines, where the teams could coordinate their movements underground.My tablet was only the backup.That was why, when it suddenly screamed, everyone in the room froze.A sharp alarm cut through the quiet, and a red warning filled my screen.SOS REQUEST RECEIVED.Jasmine.I opened it immediately.A location ping appeared beneath the warning.Deep underground.Far beyond the historical Ember routes.I stood."Noah."He was beside me immediately."Jasmine?""Yes."Emory woke in the chair across the room and came toward us."What happened?""She trigger
Amber POVSix hours.Jasmine had been underground for six hours, checking in constantly as she moved farther beyond the mapped sections of the caves. Some updates were detailed—coordinates, intersections, signs of recent activity—while others were distinctly Jasmine.Still alive. Moving east.Found another reinforced passage.Fresh boot prints. Continuing.I kept her tracker open on one screen while Marcus's search teams occupied another. Noah sat nearby, Daniel moved between the monitors and his medical supplies, and Emory coordinated with the security teams at the castle.Then my phone rang.Not a message.A video call from Jasmine.I answered immediately.Her face appeared on the screen, illuminated by the light attached to her gear. Dirt streaked one cheek, and several strands of hair had escaped around her face."I found something."Noah was beside me almost immediately."What?"Jasmine turned the camera toward the cave floor.Blood.A trail of it disappeared along the stone and
Amber POV It took one day. One painfully long day. The search teams continued moving through the newly discovered route while Jasmine stayed at the castle with me. Marcus sent updates whenever he had signal, and every new photograph showed the same thing: tunnels that shouldn't exist, signs of recent movement, and passages leading farther beneath Sum. No Jason. Not yet. Then, late the following afternoon, vehicles came through the castle gates. Jasmine saw them first. "They're here." I looked toward the window. Noah stepped out of the first vehicle. Daniel followed. Then Emory. Jasmine released a breath. I noticed. She pretended she hadn't. Minutes later, Daniel walked into my room and immediately looked me over. "How are you feeling?" "Wonderful." He narrowed his eyes. "That's not an answer." "It was intended to prevent follow-up questions." "It failed." Noah entered behind him and walked straight toward Jasmine. "You're really doing this?" "Yes." "Alone?"
Amber POV I wiped my face. "The twins are okay." His breathing hitched. "They've been kicking me constantly. I'm pretty sure they're already conspiring against us." A faint sound. Maybe a laugh. Maybe pain. I chose laugh. "Alice keeps drawing pictures for you. Alex is pretending he isn't terrified because apparently he inherited your habit of turning feelings into logistics." Jasmine looked away. "Rose is reading everything she can get her hands on, and Iris is helping everyone." My voice broke. "Your grandmother is driving the entire castle insane." The sound coming through the phone changed again. I imagined Jason smiling. I needed him to be smiling. "Grandpa is here too. Nobody left." I pressed my hand against my stomach. "We're waiting for you." The connection crackled. "No." I looked at the screen. The signal weakened. "Jason?" Static. "Jason, stay with me." I tried to stabilize the connection. "Jasmine, call Marcus." "Already trying." "Jason?" A br
Amber POVMr. White hadn't brought Jason here to stay.He'd brought him through here.The camp was a waypoint.A place hidden so deeply underground that nobody had expected it to be discovered, connected to a network of tunnels my own family hadn't known still existed.I stared into the darkness beyond Marcus's flashlight.The evidence we'd found could expose crimes spanning generations. It could identify missing children, connect victims to families who had spent decades searching for them, and prove exactly how the Vincents had maintained their power.But at that moment, I cared about only one thing.Jason wasn't there.Which meant he was still somewhere ahead."Keep going," I whispered.Marcus heard me."We will."I looked at the dark tunnel leading farther beneath Sum.Mr. White had spent his entire life hiding behind other names, other families and other people's suffering.Now his secrets were being dragged into the light one room at a time.And somewhere beyond that camp, he st
I didn’t cry. I didn’t shake. I didn’t look back, or mourned the life and the years i will never get back, lost forever. I just went home, time to pack and say goodbye to my old life. The penthouse doors opened with biometric recognition the moment I stepped inside. Floor-to-ceiling glass. Marb
We moved quickly through the hallway. Adrian walked behind me, gun raised, covering the corridor while I forced Henry Watson forward. The mansion was quieter than expected. Too quiet. Which meant either the guards were regrouping… or Jason was already on his way. I glanced over my shoulder.
Jason POV Marcus nearly slammed the brakes. “She shot the camera!” I leaned back slowly. Marcus looked at me. “What the hell was that?” I ran a hand over my face. “She said hello husband before she shot it.” Marcus stared. “…Okay.” Silence filled the car. “…What does that mean exactly?”
Family drama. Honestly, I was getting tired of it. I shifted slightly in the chair, letting the ropes around my wrists rub just enough to make the guards think I was uncomfortable. In truth, they had tied them loosely—political kidnappers rarely knew how to do proper restraints. Across from me,







