Chapter Sixty: The Names in the Flame

Lucien

The flames reminded me of my father’s voice—

Sharp.

Consuming.

Impossible to ignore.

As I stood above the command chamber’s vault, watching the last of Project NYX burn beneath Ivy’s hand, something old and ugly stirred inside me.

Ghosts.

Memories.

Truths I’d buried in steel and silence.

“Never love a fire, Lucien,” my father once said, his breath soaked in bourbon and regret.

“It’ll burn you whether it’s yours or not.”

But I had loved her anyway.

And now I was watching her become something unstoppable.

She hadn’t spoken to me in fourteen hours.

Not after Wren’s death.

Not after the data drop.

Not after reading the files that detailed what she was, what we both were.

Even now, as the sunrise bruised the sky with violent reds, she stood on the rooftop with her arms crossed over her chest, watching the city unravel beneath her.

She didn’t flinch when I joined her.

Didn’t acknowledge me.

Didn’t need to.

We were past words now.

“You should have told me,” she said finally, her voice quiet. Ragged.

I looked down at my hands. Calloused. Blood under the nails.

“I know.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

I swallowed hard. “Because I didn’t know how to hold the truth without cutting you with it.”

She turned to face me, and God, her eyes—they looked like weapons now. Beautiful, brilliant, and forged in fire.

“You didn’t trust me.”

“No,” I said softly. “I didn’t trust myself.”

I remembered the first time I saw her—really saw her.

Not the girl in a silk blouse with fire in her voice, bartered by her father.

Not the heiress to a company I wanted.

But the weapon they built in secret.

She had stood in the HALCYON archives at midnight, reading files like scripture, breathing like someone awakening from anesthesia.

And I had thought—

If I destroy her now, it’ll be mercy.

But I didn’t.

Because she smiled at me like she’d already seen the edge of my blade and decided it wasn’t sharp enough to scare her.

Now the past was eating us alive.

She was NYX.

I was her handler once—assigned by my father before he died under suspicious circumstances.

But I’d broken protocol.

Fallen for her.

Protected her when I should have erased her.

And now… now she was rewriting the story they’d buried us both in.

“I need to tell you something,” I said, stepping closer.

Ivy didn’t move.

“I think I know who killed Wren.”

That got her attention.

Her head snapped toward me, eyes narrowing. “Who?”

I hesitated.

She saw it.

Her voice dropped. “Lucien. Don’t you dare hold anything back.”

I reached into my coat and pulled out a black card. No markings. Just a symbol etched in silver:

𝕍

“Valen,” I said. “He’s not just a rogue element. He’s the last architect of the HALCYON bloodline. And he’s building something… worse.”

Her hands clenched. “Why Wren?”

“Because she found the original implant data. She knew he was modifying subjects without authorization.”

Ivy’s eyes darkened. “What kind of modifications?”

I hesitated again.

And then I told her.

Everything.

“Project THORN,” I said. “A secondary line of operatives designed to control you.”

Her breath hitched.

“What?”

“You’re the primary. But if you ever broke protocol, they needed a failsafe. Someone who could match you.”

She blinked. Slowly. “So… there’s another one like me.”

“Not one,” I said. “Three.”

She stepped back like I’d struck her.

Her voice shook. “And you knew this?”

“For years. But I shut the files down. I thought the project was terminated.”

Ivy’s laugh was bitter. “You thought?”

“I hoped.”

She pressed a hand to her temple. “Do you know who they are?”

“No. But I know Valen activated one of them.”

She looked at me now like she didn’t know if she should kiss me or kill me.

“I can’t keep doing this alone,” she said, voice barely a whisper.

“You’re not alone.”

“You keep secrets like weapons.”

“And I would use every one of them to protect you.”

We stood there in silence, a storm building between us.

I took a breath. Stepped forward.

And gave her the one thing I’d never told anyone.

“My real name isn’t Lucien.”

She looked up, startled.

“My father gave me the name after the man he killed. The man who raised me was not my blood. He found me in the ruins of the original Blackwood compound after it burned. I was the only survivor.”

She frowned. “You’re not a Blackwood?”

“I am now. I became one. But I was born… somewhere else. The records are gone. Deleted.”

Her lips parted. “You think you were part of NYX?”

“I think I was before NYX.”

We descended the tower in silence, the city’s chaos swelling below like a tidal wave.

As we entered the war room, Clara met us with a pale face and trembling hands.

“There’s something you both need to see,” she said.

On the screen, a video played—grainy, untraceable.

It showed a lab.

Three figures in containment tubes.

Two girls. One boy.

All with matching neural implants.

A voice spoke offscreen.

“Activate THORN Sequence Alpha. Begin memory overwrite.”

The boy opened his eyes.

And my heart stopped.

Because I recognized his face.

It was mine.

Ivy turned toward me slowly.

“Lucien…”

“I don’t remember this.”

“But it’s you.”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you remember?”

I stared at the screen. “Because someone made sure I wouldn’t.”

My name wasn’t Lucien.

My love wasn’t clean.

My loyalty wasn’t pure.

And everything I thought I had buried… was clawing back to the surface.

Ivy stepped closer.

She didn’t look afraid.

She looked angry.

Determined.

Dangerous.

“I don’t care who you were,” she said. “But I need to know who you are now.”

“I’m yours.”

“Then prove it.”

“How?”

She reached into the console and pulled out a chip.

“This holds the key to the THORN network. But if we use it, it will expose every operative, every lab, every secret—including you.”

I nodded.

“Plug it in,” I said.

She stared at me. “You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“Even if it destroys you?”

I looked at her.

And smiled.

“I already burned once. But if you’re the fire—I’ll burn again.”

As she inserted the chip, alarms blared.

The screen exploded with data.

And names began to scroll.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

And then—

Three names highlighted in red.

THORN01 – ACTIVE

THORN02 – DECEASED

THORN03 – UNKNOWN

And beneath that, a signature:

Lucien Blackwood – Authorization Level RED

Ivy turned to me, eyes wide.

“You built them,” she whispered.

“I don’t remember doing it.”

“But you did.”

A beat of silence.

And then she asked the one question that chilled me to the core.

“What if you’re not the hero in this story, Lucien?”

I didn’t have an answer.

But I knew the only way forward was through fire.

Because now, we weren’t just fighting ghosts.

We were fighting ourselves.

And if I was a monster,

Then God help the world if I ever remembered why.