Chapter 30- Not A Ghost

Silas didn’t come back like a hero. He came back like a secret.

Sonia stood in her dorm room, back pressed against the door. The moonlight cut across the floor in cold, white slashes. She felt like she was balancing on a blade, a single slip and everything would shatter.

Eric had walked her back from the garden, asking questions she didn’t answer. He’d seen Silas, but he didn’t know everything. And she couldn’t tell him, not yet. Not when Silas’s life depended on shadows.

Sonia turned toward the bed. Silas sat on the edge, elbows on his knees, looking older than seventeen. His hair was longer, his eyes sharper. That same smirk she’d known since they were kids was gone.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he muttered, running a hand through his hair.

“Like what?” Sonia crossed her arms.

“Like I’m a ghost. I’m not a ghost, Sonia.”

Her throat tightened. “I thought you were dead.”

Silas exhaled slowly. “I know.”

She moved closer, each step feeling like a hundred miles. She wanted to hug him, but she also wanted to hit him.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Her voice cracked.

“Because telling you would’ve made you a target.” His eyes lifted to hers, dark and hollow. “I thought I could keep you out of it.”

“But you didn’t.” She was trembling now, and it made her furious. “I came here. I wore your blazer. I pretended to be you. I lied to everyone, even myself.”

Silas’s lips twitched with something like sadness. “I saw that. You wore it better than I ever did.”

Her heart splintered. “Don’t say that.”

He stood and stepped closer. “It’s true.” His hand hovered over her shoulder, hesitant. “You were always the strong one. You just didn’t know it.”

She pressed her lips together. “I’m tired of being strong.”

Silas’s hand fell to his side. “I know.”

Silence settled between them. Heavy, but not empty.

She looked at him and saw the boy who taught her how to ride a bike. The boy who stayed up with her on stormy nights when their parents were fighting. The boy who smirked at every rule just because he could.

But this boy in front of her now — he’d seen things she hadn’t. And maybe he was broken in places she couldn’t reach.

“You can’t stay here,” she whispered.

“I’m not planning to.” His jaw tightened. “They think I’m dead. That’s my advantage.”

Sonia’s stomach twisted. “You’re going back underground.”

“Someone has to.” He stepped closer again. “Listen to me — they’re not done. The Cartel is bigger than Daxton. It’s in the walls, in the staff, maybe even in the Board. You think Rivers is the only teacher with secrets? You’re wrong.”

She felt her breath catch. “But you —”

Silas cut her off. “I can’t let them know I’m alive, Sonia. If I do, they’ll come after you. After Mom. After everyone.”

She shook her head. “I can’t lose you again.”

“You won’t,” he said softly. His eyes softened, and for a second, she saw the brother she’d lost. “I’m here. I’m watching. And I trust you to finish what I started.”

Tears stung her eyes. “Silas…”

He reached out and caught her hand in his. “You’ve already done more than I ever could. You faced them. You found the surveillance room. You found the tapes. You turned the whole place upside down.”

“It’s not enough,” she whispered.

“It’s a start,” he replied. “And now we make them pay.”

She leaned her forehead against his. “I don’t want to be brave anymore.”

“Too bad,” he whispered. “Because you are.”

A tear slipped down her cheek. “I wish I could just be your sister again. Just Sonia.”

“You’re always my sister,” he said. “Even when you’re wearing my blazer.”

They stood like that, heads pressed together, in the hush of the night. The wind rattled the windows, but inside the room, there was only the quiet thrum of shared breath.

After a while, she pulled back. “What do I tell Eric?”

Silas’s expression darkened. “Nothing. Not yet.”

“He saw you.”

“He saw a shadow,” Silas corrected. “He doesn’t know everything. And if he does then he’s in as much danger as you are.”

Her chest ached. “I don’t want to lie to him anymore.”

Silas’s eyes softened. “Then tell him the parts that won’t get him killed.”

She let out a shaky breath. “God, I hate this.”

He grinned faintly. “Welcome to my world.”

For a moment, they were just brother and sister, sharing a secret no one else could carry.

Then the darkness crept back in.

Silas straightened, his face hardening. “I need to move. There’s a shipment coming in at the docks tomorrow night. Cartel money. I’m going to see who shows up.”

“Alone?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Trust me — I’m safer in the shadows than you are in the spotlight.”

She reached out and grabbed his sleeve. “Promise me you’ll come back.”

He looked down at her hand and then up at her eyes. “I promise.”

And then he was gone, slipping through the door like he’d never been there at all.

Sonia stood frozen, staring at the empty space he left behind.

Outside, the wind carried the sound of waves and the distant laughter of students who didn’t know the war they were living in.

Inside, she felt like the walls were closing in.

But she wasn’t alone.

She had Eric. She had Silas. She had herself — the girl who’d worn the blazer and survived the worst Daxton could throw at her.

And now she had one more secret to keep.

A secret that just might save them all.

Or destroy them.

Either way, she wasn’t running anymore.

She was ready.