Chapter Nineteen: Ghosts?

VOSS ESTATE

Rain had carved the night into trembling streaks, each one gliding down the glass like it wanted in.

The thunder finally rolled past, leaving behind a quiet thick enough to hear the house breathe.

Kaylee stood there, pale from the glow of the screen, her fingers tight around the laptop like it was the only thing anchoring her to the room. Amara’s voice sliced through the dark again — low, steady, and edged with a kind of control that only existed when something inside her was burning.

> “Who, Kaylee?”

A beat.

Kaylee’s throat moved. “His name is Daniel.”

The name landed like a slow drop of acid.

Amara blinked once. The sound of the ocean below seemed to dim, the waves caught mid-crash.

“Daniel,” she repeated — quiet, disbelieving. “Daniel who?”

“Just Daniel,” Kaylee said, her voice flat. “No last name. No traceable identity. Just the Nevada registration and a string of scrambled communications tied to Cade systems. He’s good — really good. I almost didn’t catch it.”

Amara’s pulse ticked at her wrist. She knew a Daniel “Daniel was…” She stopped herself, swallowing the word friend before it could poison the air.

When she’d been Elara — the naive, bright-eyed version of herself — Daniel had been the constant shadow in the Cade orbit. Ethan’s study partner. Sienna’s confidant. Her own occasional refuge. He was brilliant, irreverent, magnetic in a quiet way that never tried to compete with Ethan’s storm.

And then one day, he vanished. No goodbyes. No rumors. Nothing.

Now he was calling Sienna. Using military-grade encryption.

It didn’t make sense.

“Kaylee, are you absolutely sure?”

“I checked it twice,” she said. “The number’s been pinging off a relay in Henderson, Nevada. Whoever’s running it has access to high-level clearance networks — defense-adjacent, maybe intelligence. I think he’s off-grid for a reason.”

Amara pressed her hand against the desk, trying to ground herself. The edges of her reflection warped in the glass.

“Why Sienna?” she murmured. “If he wanted Ethan, he’d go through him directly. If he wanted me—” she stopped. “No. This doesn’t fit.”

Kaylee hesitated. “Could Ethan know?”

Amara turned sharply. “If he did, Sienna wouldn’t be hiding it.”

The words came out colder than she intended. Truth always did.

For a long moment, neither spoke. The fire in the hearth snapped like it was tired of waiting.

Finally, Amara said, “Dig into him. Quietly. Find out everything you can — where he’s been, who he’s talking to, what he’s doing with that phone.”

Kaylee nodded. “And if he’s dangerous?”

Amara’s lips curved, just slightly. “Then we use that danger. Everyone’s a weapon in the right hands.”

Kaylee didn’t argue. She packed up her laptop, the air between them humming with silent understanding. When the door finally shut behind her, Amara was left alone with the storm and the name echoing in her head.

Daniel.

Why him? Why now?

She poured another glass of wine but didn’t drink it. Her mind was a war map — threads of connections, timelines, faces she hadn’t allowed herself to remember. Ethan’s controlled rage. Sienna’s hidden panic. Vale’s collapse.

And now Daniel — the ghost she hadn’t expected to crawl back from the past.

She grabbed her phone.

The moment her thumb hovered over the contact, she almost stopped herself. She hated calling him first. Damien Rhys didn’t like surprises, and she didn’t like needing anyone. But this was different.

The line rang once. Twice. Then his voice came through, low and wary.

“Amara.”

He never said her name like other people did. It sounded like both a greeting and a question.

“Damien.” Her voice was quieter than she expected. “I need to talk.”

A pause. Then a chuckle that wasn’t quite amused. “Now that’s new. You don’t call me. You summon people, maybe — but never me.”

“I wouldn’t if it wasn’t important.”

“Everything with you is important,” he murmured. “What happened?”

Amara walked to the balcony, the storm air biting her bare skin. “Kaylee traced a number, it belongs to someone named Daniel.”

Silence.

Then Damien’s tone changed — cautious. “You know him.”

“I did,” she said. “When I was Elara.”

That name still tasted bitter.

“Old friend?”

“Something like that.”

He caught it instantly — the flicker she hadn’t meant to reveal. “So this Daniel is connected to the Cades.”

“Yes,” she said. “To all of us. Sienna, Ethan, and me. He disappeared years ago, and now he’s contacting Sienna through a secured military-grade phone. I don’t know why. I don’t even know what side he’s on.”

“Or if there is a side,” Damien muttered. “People like that don’t crawl out of the dark without reason.”

Amara exhaled, her breath fogging the glass. “There’s more.”

“Of course there is,” he said dryly.

“The messages. The ones that started this.”

She hadn’t told him before — though she thinks Kaylee might've mentioned it to him.

“Someone’s been texting me. No name, no trace, just threats wrapped in riddles.”

She heard Damien’s shift on the other end — the faint scrape of a chair, the muted click of a lighter.

“You should’ve told me sooner.”

“I can handle it.”

“That’s what everyone says before they disappear.”

“Don’t start with me,” she warned.

“Then don’t act like I’m just an audience,” he snapped, voice suddenly sharp. “If someone’s inside your system, Amara, they’re not after information. They’re after you.”

Her pulse didn’t change, but the truth of it hit.

The wind rose, flinging sea spray against the glass.

“I’m not the same woman they could corner,” she said.

“I know that,” he replied, softer now. “But even the strongest walls crack from the inside. Whoever Daniel is, whatever he wants — he’s part of this. You can’t afford to underestimate him.”

“I never do.”

“Then let me send someone—”

“No.”

“Amara—”

She cut him off. “Damien, listen to me. No one comes here. Not yet. Not until I know what Daniel wants. If he’s calling Sienna, she’ll slip. She always does. And when she does, I’ll be waiting.”

For a long time, there was only the sound of static and the low churn of the storm.

Then Damien’s voice came, quiet but threaded with something unspoken.

“You’ve got ghosts circling you, little star. Don’t mistake recognition for control.”

She didn’t answer.

The call ended, leaving her with the sea and her reflection — half Amara, half Elara, the line between them thinning by the second.

She turned back toward the desk where Kaylee’s laptop still hummed faintly.