Chapter Twenty-Four: The Shot

The gun exploded. The blast shattered the air of the room.

A violet shockwave ripped through my wrists, sending a jarring ache all the way up to my shoulders. For a second, everything went completely quiet. There was no noise here anymore, like me shouting the gun silenced everyone.

I finally opened my eyes to see who I shot. I looked left. I looked right.

My bullet hadn't hit Julian, and it hadn't hit the men struggling with Silas.

In that split second of pure panic, my instinct has taken over. I searched for where the bullet went instead. Luckily, it was the exact manual override handle which Julian was supposed to turn open to carry my Godmother out. It was completely broken.

So now Julian was still trapped in tge room with us.

“No!” He screamed out. His furious gray eyes staring at me like he was ready to strangle me to death with his bare hands.

"You miserable little brat," Victor Laurent hissed from the shadows.

Before I could even blink, the heavy silver head of victors cane swung through the darkness, striking my hands with brutal force. I cried out, a sharp sob tearing from my throat as the empty pistol was knocked from my grip, skittering away into the darkness in the room.

Seeing me get hit, Silas immediately got a wave of strength pushing the men and ran towards me. With pure anxiety in his voice.. “Little bird, are you ok”.

I nodded my head in a no signal. Tears if pain rolling out from my eyes.

He immediately reached down, held my hand, and kissed it.

Shock froze me in place. Silas Vane had just kissed my hand. In the middle of a war zone. I didn’t understand why, but warmth spread through my chest anyway.

“Enough!” Victor snapped furiously. “This is hardly the time for your little romance.”

I silently hissed at him.

“An asset that cannot be controlled is a liability." He continued raising the cane again, aiming it straight for my head.

But he forgot who he was dealing with. You don't touch me when Silas Vane is in the room.

Behind him, my godmother collapsed against the wall, breathing hard, still connected to wires trailing from the machine.

“Grab her” Victor barked out his final command to his remaining operators.

Silas moved before they could even reach me. He shoved the guards aside as if they weighed nothing and lunged for Victor, wrapping his hand around the older man’s throat and driving him violently to the ground.

I watched them struggle on the floor in stunned silence. You can imagine how a proud billionaire like Victor looked right now.

“Stay away from my woman, Victor.” Silas voice growled with anger. And if you persist in hurting her.. I will.. kill you myself without anyone realizing it. Just the way you framed up my death”.

Victor let out a cracked, pathetic cough the minute Silas released him. He couldn’t even fight for himself or even mutter a single word.

"Vienne, Come here” Lena was suddenly there, her fingers digging into my coat as she dragged me backward away from the heat. Her hair was still wild, her face smudged with soot, but her grip was tight.

Through the flashing blue sparks, I saw Silas stand up from the wreckage. Victor lay motionless on the floor beneath a pile of shattered glass, his expensive silver cane snapped completely in two.

Silas was breathing like a wounded animal, his chest heaving under his torn shirt. He turned his head, his single dark eye locking onto me through the gloom. For the first time since the night I signed that contract; the icy, untouchable billionaire was completely gone. He looked terrified. Not of the guards and definitely not Victor but terrified that I was hurt.

He crossed the room in three heavy strides, his massive hand coming up to cup the back of my neck, pulling me roughly against his shoulder. He didn't say anything at first, just held me so tightly I could feel the loud thumping of his heart against my rib.

"I won’t let anyone hurt you” he muttered into my hair, his voice rough and laced with protectiveness.

We were so distracted that we totally forgot the reason we were up here. I opened my mouth to speak but someone spoke instead…

"Silas..." Elias’s voice was barely a breath. "Look."

I leaned over Silas's arm, looking into the part Elias was pointing with his flash. My stomach dropped into a bottomless pit.

My Godmother was at the corner, her eyes closed, breathing shallowly but alive. The wires had been ripped from her head.

But Julian and Marissa were gone.

But they hadn't left empty-handed, though. Or rather, he had left something behind for me. Resting right on the edge of the open floor hatch, gleaming under the beam of Elias's flashlight, was a small, intricate silver object.

My breath hitched completely. It was a metallic stamp. The unique, custom family seal that had been stamped at the very top of my marriage contract from day one. The symbol from my nightmares, the car crash, the blood, the fire that took my parents. The exact same seal I saw with Silas the night before I was kidnapped at the board meeting.

Wrapped around the cold silver stamp, was a bold piece of text glowing on a small interface:

CAELTHRONE ARCHIVE ACCESS PENDING.

DUAL BLOOD AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.

My stomach dropped. The archive. This was it. The thing everyone had been killing for. The secret my parents died protecting.

The reason Godmother spent nineteen years imprisoned in a wall.

A rough laugh echoed behind us. I turned. Victor had somehow pulled himself to his feet, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

“You still don’t understand, do you?” Victor asked, his voice dripping with malice.

“N…O” I stammered out loud. I wasn’t confident anymore but fear took over.

“Then tap on the button below”.

I turned my gaze. There was a physical glowing node just beneath the seal which I didn’t notice earlier. Trembling, I tapped it.

Instantly, a massive holographic screen flared to life in front of my face.

A stream of message began to code itself on the screen.

AUTHORIZATION DETECTED.

ARCHIVE OPENING.

Nobody had touched the terminal. Nobody had entered a code. Yet the system had activated itself, the second my thumb pressed the node.

The room went silent.

And then boom! Julian steeped out from only God knows where. Marissa following suit like a body guard closed by.

He stepped up to my right side while Silas stood firmly on my left, both of them staring intensely at the glowing screen.

Same as Lena and Elias.

Then another line appeared on the screen.

WELCOME BACK, HEIR.

I stared at the flashing word. My blood turned cold.

Because the system wasn’t talking to Julian, or Victor, or Silas.

It was talking to me.