Chapter 47: Shadows of the Past

Elias pushed Lena behind him instantly, placing himself between her and Victoria. His stance was lethal, steady — a predator preparing to strike.

Victoria staggered forward in the moonlight, her wound still bleeding, her breath ragged. Yet even half-dead, her presence radiated dangerous intent.

“Put the gun down,” she rasped.

Elias didn’t move. “You’re bleeding out, Victoria. Go home.”

Victoria laughed, sharp and bitter. “Home? I don’t have a home. The Circle burned it when I refused to finish the job your father gave me.”

Lena froze. “Your father…?”

Elias’s jaw clenched. “Don’t start.”

Victoria smirked. “What? Afraid she’ll learn the truth?”

Lena’s pulse spiked. “Tell me.”

“No,” Elias snapped. “We don’t have time—”

“MAKE TIME,” Victoria roared, pointing her trembling blade at him, her voice cracking. “You want to run away with the girl you stalked? Fine. But she deserves to know who you really are. What you did. What we both did.”

Elias’s expression flickered — not with fear, but with something deeper. Shame.

“Not here,” he said quietly.

“Yes. Here,” Victoria insisted, staggering forward another step. “Tell her what happened to her mother.”

Lena’s stomach twisted painfully. “Elias…”

He looked at her.

For the first time, he looked afraid.

Victoria’s voice lowered, trembling with pain and fury. “He wasn’t too late, Lena.”

Elias closed his eyes briefly. “Victoria—”

“He got there before I did,” she said. “He was already with your mother when I arrived.”

The forest went silent.

Lena felt her blood turn cold. “Elias…?”

He exhaled slowly, breath shaking. “Lena… listen—”

“She trusted him,” Victoria snapped. “She begged him to protect her daughter. And what did he do?”

Lena’s heart hammered wildly. “Tell me.”

Elias met her gaze.

His voice was quiet.

Almost a whisper.

“She was already dying.”

Victoria shook her head violently. “No. She was alive when you arrived. She was begging for help. I saw it.”

Elias’s eyes darkened. “You weren’t there.”

“I was,” Victoria hissed. “I watched from the stairs. I saw you holding her hand. And I saw the look on your face when she told you what she’d done. How she’d exposed Adrian. How she’d stolen the file.”

Lena’s breath caught. “Elias…”

Elias swallowed hard. “Lena—”

Victoria stepped forward, eyes blazing. “Tell her what you told her mother.”

Elias remained silent.

Victoria’s voice broke.

“Tell her how you said you couldn’t protect her. How you told her the Circle would kill her because of what she did. How you walked away.”

Lena felt the world tilt.

“Is that true?” she whispered.

Elias finally spoke.

“I was a coward,” he said. “I was twenty years old. I’d just learned my father ordered a hit on her. I… I froze.”

Victoria barked a laugh. “You ran.”

Elias didn’t deny it.

“I ran,” he said hoarsely. “Because I didn’t know who to fight — my father, the Circle, or myself.”

Lena’s eyes burned. “And she died alone because of you.”

Elias flinched as if stabbed. “I came back—”

“Too late,” Victoria said coldly. “I found her. I held her. I ended her pain because YOU didn’t.”

Lena staggered back, tears pouring down her face. “Stop—both of you—stop!”

But they didn’t.

Victoria pointed the blade at Elias’s chest.

“You think you can save Lena now? You couldn’t save her mother. You won’t save her either.”

Elias raised his gun, voice cracking. “Stay back. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You already did,” Victoria whispered.

Then she lunged.

Elias fired.

The bullet grazed her shoulder — not enough to kill, not enough to stop her.

She slammed into him, blade slashing through the air.

Lena screamed, stumbling backward, watching as the two deadly shadows collided in a violent, desperate struggle.

Elias shoved her away, twisting her wrist.

Victoria kicked his knee, knocking him off balance.

The blade flashed again, slicing across Elias’s arm.

He grunted in pain but didn’t drop the gun.

Victoria panted, fury filling her eyes. “You never deserved her trust!”

“And you never deserved her love,” Elias spat back.

Lena crumpled to her knees. The world spun around her.

“My mother loved you?” she whispered.

Both froze.

Victoria’s breath hitched.

Elias’s face tightened.

“She loved both of us,” Victoria said, voice breaking. “In different ways.”

Elias said nothing.

Because it was true.

But Victoria continued, voice cold and cutting:

“And now her daughter loves the man who abandoned her.”

Elias’s eyes snapped to Lena.

A flicker — pain, regret, something unspoken.

Lena’s heart splintered.

Then—

Another sound ripped the night open.

Snapping branches.

Crunching leaves.

Heavy boots.

Alexander burst through the trees, wild-eyed, bleeding, desperate.

“LENA!”

His voice cracked as he sprinted toward them.

Victoria turned, startled.

Elias raised his gun.

Alexander raised his.

Both aiming.

Lena screamed—

“STOP!”

But it was too late.

Two gunshots fired at once.

One figure collapsed into the leaves.

Lena ran forward, sobbing—

“NO—PLEASE—NO—!!”

And when she reached the fallen body…

She screamed.