Lahat ng Kabanata ng THE PRICE FOR HIS NAME : Kabanata 191 - Kabanata 195

The industrial freezer door hissed open like it was sighing in disappointment. A wall of cold smacked Xavier in the face. Hard. Like karma. Or Joy on a bad day.“Alright,” he muttered, stepping in. “Let’s see if freezing to death is as fun as it sounds.”The cold was immediate, aggressive, like it had a personal grudge. He stripped off his jacket and shirt with exaggerated flair, like he was performing in a very sad, very illegal burlesque show.Miriam didn’t even glance up. “Try not to die dramatically. We still need your organs functioning.”“Encouraging, as always,” Xavier muttered, teeth already chattering. “Go on then. Remind me why this was the genius plan.”Miriam adjusted her glasses and pulled out a syringe like she was about to give a lecture and a flu shot. “Step one: freeze you. Step two: slow the ricin. Step three: hope House Six’s luck hasn’t completely run out this semester.”“Step four?” he asked, breath fogging.“Step four is optional: survive.”“Ah,” he said through

It began with thunder.Not from the sky, but from the academy’s walls.At 3:17 a.m., the night shattered.Gunfire. Screams. The hiss of smoke grenades. Sirens that didn’t belong to any school system.Students jerked upright in their beds, sucked from sleep into nightmare. Eyes wide. Rooms dark. The ground quaked beneath them, windows trembled in their frames—then burst.The dorm alarms wailed.Thornecrest Academy, the most prestigious school on the Eastern Seaboard was under siege.Doors slammed shut. Reinforced locks sealed dorms from the inside. Some students cowered under beds, others threw themselves into closets, phones shaking in their hands. Red tracer rounds split the air outside their windows. Shadows sprinted across the courtyard. Marble columns cracked.War had come to their ivory tower.In House Six, the quake jolted them like a fist to the chest.Miriam burst in

The slam of the front door echoed through the house. Groceries hit the kitchen counter with a thud. "Mom sent me," Maria called lazily, voice light — masking the twist of nerves already tangling in her gut. "Said you two eat like pigs and need a woman’s touch before you kill yourselves." The shower was running upstairs — Johan, oblivious, humming tunelessly through the noise. Maria turned, already rolling her eyes and nearly crashed straight into Luca’s chest. He was still in jeans and a loose black tee, controller abandoned on the couch, hair messy like he'd been dragging his hands through it. Big hands caught her waist, steadying her. "Hey, baby girl," Luca murmured, bending to kiss her forehead, all sweet, brotherly affection. Maria didn’t even hesitate. She grabbed the front of his shirt and hauled him down, crushing her mouth to his. The kiss exploded between them — hot, messy, Luca chuckling low as he let her have her way. "Fuck, you’re trouble," he breat