Lahat ng Kabanata ng LUCAN VALE: THE GHOST ASSASSIN: Kabanata 171 - Kabanata 180

Hearing the voices, Jason's eyebrows raised slightly. At first he thought it was a potential threat, however now that he noticed their voices, he realized that they were familiar people. People he knew very well from the eclipse syndicate. Jason's hand found the light switch by the door. The fluorescents turned on with a buzz, illuminating the storage room with harsh white light that made everything look a bit too real, the dusty stacks of chairs, the forgotten mop in the corner, the faint smell of stale cardboard.The two men froze mid-sentence, blinking against the sudden brightness like they'd been caught raiding the fridge at midnight.Jason stared at them. Then his shoulders dropped, the tension bleeding out in a slow exhale. Of course, it was those two. Jagua and Klaus, his friends from the Eclipse Syndicate. They were the kind of friends who would show up unannounced to his house with takeout and some bad bad ideas, just to turn a quiet night into chaos."Are you kidding me

Something cold settled in Jason's gut. Him and Vanessa weren't at that level yet, where he would tell her who he really was. Besides, there was an uncertainty of who he really was at the moment. The old couple, Martha and Henry, told him he might be a Caelthorn, although it was probably a misunderstanding, Jason couldn't help but wonder if there was some truth to it. After all, the name Caelthorn did feel like home to him when he thought of it. "Not yet.”Jagua's grin faded. He set his glass down slowly, deliberately. "Jason. You're engaged to this woman. You're gonna stand up in front of people and promise to spend your life with her." He leaned forward. "Don't you think she should know who you actually are?""I'll tell her." The words came out sharper than Jason intended. "It just... it hasn't been the right time.""When's the right time?" Klaus's voice was quiet, but there was something in it that made Jason look up. "Before the wedding? During the vows? Or maybe on your honeymoon

Jason felt his blood run cold at his friend's statement. And in that moment, he remembered the Caelthorn name. It hit him again, just like it had when Martha and Henry mentioned it at the Voss family. That strange pull, like a half-remembered dream nagging at the edges of his consciousness. He'd brushed it off before, told himself it was nothing, just old folks mixing up faces and stories.But now? Even Remus was digging into it? Asking Kairos about it? And now Remus was dead, allegedly because he was digging into it? If Duval, Henry and Martha's words weren't enough to take this seriously, Remus's death was enough to make Jason curious. Now he wanted to look into this, to find out if there was a connection between him and the Caelthorn family. Outside, the rain was coming down harder. Jason could hear it drumming against the windows, a steady rhythm that matched his pulse. Someone laughed at a table behind them, too loud, too drunk, oblivious to the conversation happening ten fee

Jason's hands tightened on the steering wheel. A party. A celebration of their engagement, which was built on something he didn't trust anymore. If Kairos was what Klaus and Jagua said he was, and if Kairos was the one who'd set up this whole thing with Vanessa, then Jason didn't know if he wanted to keep going with it.But at the same time, he was starting to actually like Vanessa. Not just because Kairos wanted him to. Because he really did want to be with her."I told them we need to discuss it first," Vanessa continued. Her voice got stronger, more determined. "I told them I don't want them to just push you into another one of their shows. This is about us, not them. So I wanted to ask if that's something you'd even want. And if we do it, we do it on our terms."He was quiet, trying to process what she'd said. She was standing up for him. For them. She wasn't treating this engagement like some business deal or obligation. She was treating it like a real partnership. She was trying

Was she even alive? Did she know he existed?Or had Kairos been telling the truth? Had she really wanted to forget him?That thought felt worse than anything else. Jason never really showed it, but the truth was that, the idea that somewhere out there, he might have a mother who chose to walk away. Who decided he wasn't worth remembering, always made him feel some sort of anger. Jason closed his eyes as he tried to go to sleep. However, sleep wouldn't come. His mind kept circling back to that study, to twelve-year-old him standing before Kairos's desk, accepting what might be a myth as truth.He'd been so easy to convince. So desperate to belong somewhere. To someone.And Kairos had known that. Had used it.Maybe.Jason didn't know anymore. He didn't know anything. He should trust Kairos and have no major reason to not trust him, up until today a few hours ago when his friends told him about their suspicion of Kairos. So he couldn't say for real that he knew if this was the truth or