LOGINPOV: DamienWe ran for the stairs at the end of the hall. Silas kept firing from the ceiling. Bullets smashed the mirrors around us. Sharp pieces of glass flew through the air like rain. One piece cut my cheek, but I didn't stop."Go! Go!" I yelled.We burst through the door at the end of the hallway. It led to the very top of the bell tower. It was a wide, open space with huge bells hanging from the wooden beams. The wind blew through the open stone arches. Below us, the city looked small and gray.I looked around for Silas. The room was empty."Where is he?" Sera asked. She was leaning against a beam, trying to catch her breath.Suddenly, a shadow dropped from the ceiling above.Silas landed on his feet like a cat. He didn't have his rifle anymore. He held a long, silver blade in one hand and a pistol in the other. He looked messy. His suit was torn, and his hair looked wild. The calm mask he always wore was finally gone."This is it, Damien," Silas said. He pointed the gun at my ch
## **CHAPTER 128 — “The Hall of Mirrors”****POV: Damien**The stairs to the bell tower were narrow and dark. My boots clicked against the stone. I held my gun out in front of me. Sera followed close behind. I could hear her breathing fast but she didn't stop.We reached a heavy wooden door at the top. I pushed it open with my shoulder.Inside was a long, wide hallway. It was strange. The walls were covered in tall, old mirrors. Some were cracked. Some were dusty. There were dozens of them. I saw myself everywhere I looked. I saw Sera, too. It was hard to tell where the real hallway ended and the reflections began."Stay close to me," I whispered. I took her hand. Her palm was sweaty. "Don't look at the glass. Look at the floor."We started to walk. The only sound was our footsteps. Then, a speaker hidden in the ceiling turned on.A woman started to sing a soft, sweet lullaby.Sera stopped moving. Her hand shook in mine. "That’s her," she whispered. "That’s my mother’s voice.""It is
POV: DamienWe lay together in the dark. Our breathing was slow."We survive," she whispered."That is the only rule for tomorrow. We survive.""We survive," I said as I kissed her hand."Get some sleep," I whispered. I watched her close her eyes. Soon the both of us fell asleep. —————————The morning air in the mountain was cold and sharp. I woke up before the sun was fully up. Sera was still asleep beside me. I stayed still for a moment, just listening to her breathe. I knew that by tonight, the world would be different. Either Silas would be dead, or we would be.I got out of bed and dressed in my dark tactical gear. I checked my belt, my knife, and my handgun. When Sera woke up, she didn't say much. She dressed in the dark clothes we had laid out the night before. We went to the main hub of the fortress. Gideon was standing by the heavy steel door. He looked like he hadn't slept at all. He had a bag of food and water ready for us.I walked up to him. He looked at me, and I saw t
POV: DamienThe plan was different now.I looked at Sera in the dim light of the room. For days, I tried to hide her away. I wanted her in a safe corner where the world could not touch her. But she was right. Silas was never going to stop. He followed us everywhere. The only way to end this was to use the one thing Silas wanted most to lure him into a trap."If we do this," I said. My voice was low. "You aren’t hiding, we have to keep him focused on you that he will forget to look anywhere else."Sera nodded. She picked up a small knife from the table. She ran her thumb along the edge. "Let’s give him what he wants."We trained for the next three hours without mercy.I taught her how to survive a man twice her size. I showed her the soft spots on a body. “Again,” I ordered.I stepped behind her and locked my arm around her neck tightly. My arm pressed against her throat, just enough to scare her not hurt her.“If he grabs you like this, don’t pull away,” I growled in her ear. “Lean b
POV: DamienThe monitors in the war room usually showed nothing but the quiet white snowy mountains But this morning, every screen was lit up playing a tape.Luca was typing so fast and his face was pale. "Boss, you need to see this. Silas isn't hiding anymore. He’s gone loud. He wants the whole world to watch."I walked over to the main console. On the center screen, a news report from the city was playing on a loop. The words at the bottom were bright red: SENIOR COUNCIL MEMBER KIDNAPPED.It was Moretti, One of the oldest men on the High Table. He had survived wars and assassins for thirty years, but someone had snatched him from his own home in broad daylight. His guards were all dead on the grass."He’s started a live stream," Luca whispered. He looked like he wanted to throw up.The screen flickered, and the news was cut off. A grainy video started playing instead.I recognized the room immediately. It was a basement in the old shipyard— the same place where Silas had kept Ser
CHAPTER 122 — “The Quiet Between”POV: SeraThe locket felt heavy in my palm.I was sitting on the edge of the bed in the small, stone-walled room we shared. The fortress was silent now except for the sound of the generators. My father was asleep in the next room, but I couldn't even close my eyes. Every time I did, I heard that scratchy recording of my mother’s voice.Silas was out there in the dark, and he was still using my own heart against me. The door creaked open and Damien stepped in, his silhouette blocking the light from the hallway. He looked exhausted.He didn't say anything. He just sat down on the edge of the bed next to me."I can't stop thinking about it," I whispered, my voice shaking. "How he held onto her things for all these years. It’s like he was always planning to break me."Damien reached out, his large hands covering mine. He gently opened my fingers and took the locket, setting it on the small nightstand. Then, he took both of my hands in his."Look at me, Se
Pov: Third person Silas wasn't hiding. He stood right at the edge of the loading yard. He looked like a man waiting for a bus, his coat unbuttoned against the biting wind, his hands bare and steady. Around him, the "Black Tide" moved like shadows. They moved with the terrifying quiet of people wh
POV: DamienI arrived exactly three minutes late.I didn't do it because I was messy or because I miscalculated or got lost. I did it because I knew Silas hated waiting. I wanted him to feel that tiny bit of frustration before he even saw my face.The old transit station looked like a skeleton pick
POV: Damien Marrow stopped walking before we ran out of ground. He planted his feet and refused to take another step toward the low, rusted warehouse. He looked like a man staring at his own grave. I knew that look, it was the kind of fear that came from a memory. “I’m not going inside,” he sai
POV: Sera I didn't stop to catch my breath. The moment I stepped through the mansion doors, I went straight to the operations room. My heart was pounding, not with fear, but with a cold, sharp focus. I bypassed the main desk, slipped into the dark digital hub, and locked the door behind me. I







