Mag-log inI stood outside Dante's door for maybe three seconds before knocking. Hard. Hard enough that my knuckles stung.
"What?" His voice came through muffled and irritable.
"It's me. Let me in."
A pause. Then footsteps. The door swung open to reveal Dante looking like he'd aged a decade in the hour since he'd left my room. His hair stuck up at odd angles like he'd been running his hands through it, and the shadows under his eyes had deepened to bruises.
"Did
The silence that followed my confession was different from the heavy, suffocating tension of the minutes before. It was a hollow silence, the kind that exists in the wake of a landslide. Reyes didn't recoil. He didn't reach for his service weapon or look around the warehouse for hidden cameras as if searching for a prank. Instead, he simply exhaled, a long, slow whistle of air that seemed to carry the weight of twenty years of doubt. He stood there, the flickering blue light of the workstation casting long, distorted shadows behind him, and for the first time, the detective looked like he was actually seeing the world as it was.He looked at me, then at Dante, then back at me. There was no shock in his eyes, only a grim, weary sort of validation. It was the look of a man who had finally found the missing piece of a puzzle he’d been forced to ignore for half his career. Every unexplained disappearance, every victim with wounds that defied medi
The transition from the deep, velvet darkness of our corner to the harsh reality of the warehouse floor was as jarring as a plunge into ice water. The indigo light of pre-dawn had just begun to touch the rafters, and the weight of Dante’s arm across me was the only thing keeping the encroaching dread at bay. We were on the precipice of sleep, that thin, hazy border where the mind finally lets go of the hunt, when the heavy groan of the side entrance door echoed through the cavernous space.The sound was like a gunshot.Dante was up in a heartbeat, his instincts overriding the exhaustion of the night. He didn't just wake; he lunged, his body a coiled spring of muscle and protective fury. I scrambled after him, pulling my tactical jacket over my shoulders, my fingers fumbling with the zipper as the adrenaline surged, hot and bitter, through my veins.In the center of the warehouse, Sage and Cassidy were already on their feet. Sage had her laptop clutch
The warmth of Dante’s hand over mine was the only thing anchoring me to the present, a stark contrast to the cold, rain-slicked glass of the warehouse window. The stillness we had found was fragile, a thin membrane separating us from the violence Silas had promised. I could feel the rhythmic pulse of Dante’s heart through his palm, steady and resolute, even as the world outside prepared to burn.I pulled my gaze away from the skeletal remains of the Ruins and turned to face him fully. In the dim, blue-tinted gloom of the warehouse, his features were a map of shadows and sharp edges. He looked like the Alpha he was born to be, but in his eyes, I saw only the man who had just admitted he wanted to be better."Dante," I said, my voice barely a whisper, yet it felt loud in the heavy silence. "If it comes to it... if the summit is falling and the ritual is starting, and you have to make a choice, what will you choose? me
The silence that followed the call wasn't peaceful; it was a vacuum, sucking the air out of the warehouse. I watched Sage, her face bathed in the harsh, flickering glow of the monitors. Her fingers remained poised over the keys, frozen in the middle of a command that would never finish. The pulsating red dot on the screen had vanished, replaced by a dull, gray "Signal Lost" notification that felt like a mockery of all the effort she had poured into the breach."No," Sage whispered, her voice cracking. She hit a key with enough force to make the plastic clatter, then another, her breath coming in short, jagged hitches. "No, no, no. He cut it. He timed it to the millisecond. I was there. I was inside the routing table, I was jumping the nodes, and he just... he vanished."She slumped back in her chair, her hands falling into her lap. Frustration didn't just creep in; it flooded the room, thick and suffocating. Sage had been our d
The digital tether snapped with a sharp, clean click. I dropped the phone onto the velvet-covered table immediately, the screen going dark as the encrypted connection dissolved into the ether. I didn't give Dante the satisfaction of a lingering goodbye, nor did I give Sage the extra seconds she would need to burrow through the layers of ghost servers I’d constructed. I knew exactly how capable she was; I had watched her grow from a curious girl with a knack for logic into the finest digital architect the Silvercrest pack had ever produced. Even a second too long was a vulnerability when dealing with a mind like hers, and I had no intention of being cornered or traced before the pieces were fully set. Every move from this point forward had to be surgical, calculated, and absolute.I stood in the center of the building, the air here smelling of damp stone, ancient dust, and the sharp, metallic tang of the essence jars being moved in the levels
The electronic trill of the phone seemed to vibrate through the very floorboards of the warehouse, a sharp, invasive sound that shattered the silence Selene had left behind. Dante didn’t answer it immediately. He stood paralyzed, his thumb hovering over the screen, his face a mask of pale fury. I could see the slight tremor in his hand, the only outward sign of the storm brewing inside him.He looked up, his eyes catching mine, then flicking to Sage and Cassidy. Without a word, he jerked his head toward the workstation. It was a silent command we all understood. Sage scrambled to her laptop, her fingers already flying across the keys to prime her tracking software, while Cassidy moved to the edge of the table, her hand resting on her hip near her holster.Dante hit the speaker button.The line hissed with a low-frequency hum, the kind of white noise that made the hair on my arms stand up. For a few seconds, there was nothing but that hollow, empty so
Dante’s question hung in the narrow alcove between the lockers like smoke that refused to dissipate.“Who is Leo?”I felt my face heat up. Not embarrassment. Shock. Because the tone he used wasn’t curiosity. It wasn’t the calm, clinical pr
The chains clinked one final time as Kastor unhooked them from the ceiling ring. My arms fell like lead weights. Shoulders screamed in protest. Wrists throbbed where the steel cuffs had dug deep grooves into the skin. Red welts bloomed across the bone. I flexed my fingers once, twic
The conference room felt like it was shrinking. Kyle's face had gone from red to purple, veins bulging in his neck like twisted ropes ready to snap. The two wolves behind him had their hands on their batons now, knuckles white, bodies coiled tight as springs."Stand down," Ju
The wind whipped through the chain-link fence behind her, rattling it like loose change in a pocket. I stood a step back from Dante and Kira, clutching my duffel bag tighter, the nylon strap digging into my palm. The sun beat down on the cracked asphalt, making the air shimmer with







