MasukChapter 77 Valencia’s POV The guards hauled me up the narrow stone stairs like I weighed nothing. My shoulders burned. My wrists burned. Every step jarred the bruises they had already put on me. They shoved me into a dark observation room and forced me to face a long one-way window. On the other side the lights were soft and golden. Pastel walls, a canopy bed piled with white blankets, shelves of soft toys, a little rocking horse painted pale pink. It was everything a child could want. Everything except the door that locked from the outside. Mia sat in the middle of the thick rug, knees drawn up, teddy bear crushed against her chest. Her voice floated through the hidden speakers, small and raw. “Mama? Mama, where are you? I want Mama…” Jax stepped up behind me. Close enough that I felt the heat of him through the thin fabric of my shirt. His voice was soft, almost gentle. “Look at her, Valencia. Isn’t she perfect in there? Safe. Warm. Spoiled. All she has to do
Chapter 76Valencia’s POVThe cold was a living thing.It crawled up from the dirty stone floor, soaked through the thin fabric of my trousers, and settled deep into the marrow of my bones. Three feet of freezing air separated me from the woman who had just detonated the last truth I had left. Maria or rather Teresa sat crumpled against the damp wall, iron manacles biting raw into her thin wrists. Her entire body shook with the heavy, violent force of twenty-five years of buried rot finally clawing its way up into the light. Tears cut sharp, silver rivers through the thick grime on her face, and her chest heaved as if she were drowning in dry air. Somewhere above us, through layers of heavy black rock, thick steel, and whatever the hell else Jax had built this subterranean tomb out of, Mia’s thin, terrified cry rose and fell like a dull blade being sharpened on bone. It scraped against my nerves, raw and bleeding.Her voice came out shredded, barely human, almost unrecognizable. “Do
Chapter 75The silence that followed Jax’s revelation was thicker than the stone walls of the mansion. I stared at him, my mind refusing to bridge the gap between the nerdy, tech-obsessed Jax I had met in the mountain and the regal, predatory figure sitting on that throne. He looked at home in the velvet. He looked at home in power.“You’re looking at me like you’ve seen a ghost, Valencia,” Jax said, his voice smooth as silk. “But I’m very much alive. More alive than Silas, certainly. And far more capable than Akeem.”“You orchestrated it,” I whispered, the realization hitting me like a physical blow. “The video. Lady Catherine. You made me think she was alive.”Jax threw his head back and laughed, a rich, melodic sound that chilled me to the bone. “Oh, V. It was so easy. A little deep-fake technology, a few timed triggers in the Titan satellite network, and you were running exactly where I needed you to go. Did you really think that old woman was capable of recording a message from t
Chapter 74“I have the coordinates,” Maria said, her fingers blurring across the surface of a sleek, holographic tablet. The blue light cast sharp, skeletal shadows across her face, making her look less like a woman and more like a ghost of the war she had just described. “The ping is steady. They aren't running, Valencia. They’re sitting at the Kantonalbank branch on the edge of the village, waiting for the digital ink to dry.”“Let them have it,” I snapped, my voice trembling with a cocktail of exhaustion and fury. I looked toward the stairs where Mia was finally resting. “It’s a million dollars. In the Titan vault, that’s pocket change. Maria, look at where we are. We have a fortress. We have the Silver Veil. We have a chance to breathe. Why are we chasing ghosts three blocks away?”“Because that ghost has your biometric signature,” Maria hissed, standing up. Her cold, professional mask didn't slip; it hardened. “If they can take a million, they can take it all. They can lock you
Chapter 73The hum of the Gulfstream’s engines was the only thing cutting through the deafening silence of the cabin. I sat huddled in the leather seat, staring at the screen of the Titan phone until the image of Lady Catherine burned into my retinas. “She’s watching, Maria,” I whispered, my voice barely audible over the pressurized air. “She’s not just alive. She’s watching the fallout. She knew exactly when Silas’s heart would stop.”Maria didn’t look up from her console. “She is a Blackwood, Valencia. They don't just leave legacies; they leave traps.”“‘You’ve only inherited the throne,’” I repeated, glancing at Mia, who was asleep in the adjacent seat. “What throne? I destroyed the mountain. I locked the cages. There is no throne left.”“The throne isn't a chair in a mountain, child,” Maria said, finally meeting my gaze. “It’s the Titan system. It’s the billions in untraceable assets. It’s the power to end wars or start them. And right now, it’s pulsing inside your veins.”“I don
Chapter 72Valencia’s POVThe weight of the detonator in my hand felt like holding the heart of a dying star. It was cold, heavy, and pulsing with a terrifying potential. Around us, the server room hummed with the frantic whine of cooling fans struggling against the rising heat of the facility’s failing systems. “You have five minutes before the Rossi men find this sub-level,” Maria hissed, her eyes darting to the monitor banks. “Take Mia. There is a tunnel behind the main rack that leads to the northern ridge. It’s a steep climb, but you’ll be out before the mountain settles.”I looked at the red toggle switch, then back at the door we had just come through. The sounds of gunfire and screaming echoed from the vents above.“I can’t go,” I whispered, my voice sounding strange to my own ears. Stronger. Sharper.“Valencia, don't be a martyr,” Maria snapped, grabbing my shoulder. “The goal was to get you out!”“It’s not about being a martyr,” I said, shaking her off. I looked at Mia, wh
Chapter 28Silas’s POVThe ache in my groin was a dull, throbbing reminder of the checkmate she’d dealt me three hours ago. It pulsed with every heartbeat, a relentless drumbeat that echoed through my veins, refusing to fade. I had spent forty minutes under a spray of ice-cold water in the en-suit
Chapter 25Valencia’s POVThe transformation was complete. I stood in the center of my suite, a vision of monochromatic death and high-fashion armor. The black gown was a masterpiece of structural silk, backless to the waist to reveal the scars Silas had worshipped with his mouth, and slit to the u
Chapter 20Valencia’s POVThe night was a shroud of charcoal and salt. I lay prone on the rusted corrugated roof of a warehouse overlooking Pier 17, the cold metal biting through the fabric of my tactical suit. The Neurolink hummed at the edge of my consciousness, sharpening the world into high-co
Chapter 15Valencia’s POVThe library was silent, save for the low, rhythmic hum of the servers, a sound that usually felt like a lullaby of digital secrets, but now felt like a cold, mechanical heartbeat.I blinked my eyes open, my body heavy and aching in a way that had nothing to do with the tr







