Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

Chapter Twenty Two Aria’s POVThe corridors echoed with our footsteps, fast, frantic, the slap of boots against concrete ringing louder than any alarm.My lungs burned. Not from exertion, but from fear. From adrenaline.Julian’s grip on my hand was tight, unrelenting. His skin was hot and damp, like a fire barely held in check. We didn’t speak. There wasn’t time for words, only movement.Only survival.Behind us, the vault’s lights flickered. Systems shutting down. Or maybe booting something up.The warning that had flashed across the screen still pulsed in my mind.Trace initiated.“Left,” Julian barked, yanking me toward a narrow hall. The ceiling hung lower here. Pipes ran overhead, dripping moisture that smacked the floor like a ticking clock.“How long before they reach us?” I asked between gasps.“Too soon,” he said. “If they’ve mobilized a drone unit or used signal triangulation, we could have five minutes… or one.”I didn’t like either option.We rounded another corner. The a

Chapter Twenty FourJulian’s POVThe tunnel smelled like rust, wet metal, and time, all decaying into each other.The man ahead of me moved with the certainty of someone who knew every inch of the underground. His footsteps were silent on the gravel, but I kept mine loud. I wanted him to know I was still behind him. Still watching. Still deciding if I’d put a bullet between his shoulder blades.We turned a sharp corner. Fluorescent emergency strips blinked dimly on the low ceiling, some flickering, some dead. The light cast his shadow in long, stuttering lines across the corridor walls.I cleared my throat. “What did you mean when you said I wasn’t supposed to wake up again?”He didn’t turn. “Exactly what it sounds like.”“Then you’d better make it sound better,” I snapped. “Or I’m walking out.”He paused at a service door and keyed in an old code on a rusted panel. The door buzzed, then clicked open. Warm air rushed out, thick with ozone and faint electricity. I followed him in a nar

Chapter Twenty SixAria’s POVPain, then silence.My lungs gasped as dust and debris settled around me. I lay in the wreckage of the theater, the roar of the storm outside muffled by concrete, twisted steel, and dripping water.Everything burned.I hurt.Sharp shards of wood pressed into my ribs. My throat felt on fire. The taste of blood was copper on my tongue. I couldn’t move. But I remembered.Julian’s fingers, warm and fierce on my wrist. His voice trembling, then roaring my name. The explosion.I coughed, convulsing, and spat dust rings into blackness. My chest tightened. But I was alive.I pushed up, arms shaking, head pounding like thunder. Light flickered through a hole in the ceiling, electric white, pulsing. I swallowed past the kick of pain and turned.Where was he?Rubble lay between me and the exit. Flames lit pockets of shadow across the broken seats.I tasted fear as I dug my fingernails into concrete. Every breath burned.It took effort, every scrap of momentum I had

Chapter Twenth EightAria’s POV“Julian… they’re here.”His voice, low and steady, sounded miles away in the chaos. My chest tightened as I stepped into the flickering streetlight, rain plastering my hair to my forehead.silhouettes emerged through the downpour, three figures, dark and rigid, insignia of the Initiative’s black lightning etched into their coats.I fingered the holo‑drive hidden beneath my dress. It pulsed with a dangerous promise, my mother’s voice, waiting to resurface.I swallowed hard, ground wet beneath my boots.“Stay behind me,” Julian cautioned, his hand firm on the small of my back.His touch felt like an anchor, but I could feel the tremor in his fingers. I looked at him, the man I loved, wounded but determined, and felt both feral and fragile.The lead operative inched forward, pistol trained at us. Raindrops mapped the path of the barrel as it followed my gaze.“Aria Monroe,” he said, voice through rain. “You are ordered to surrender the vault drive or face

Chapter Thirty Aria’s POVThere was a shift.Not in the earth, not in the air, in him.Julian had always carried his silence like armor, but now it felt… heavier. Not guarded. Haunted.He hadn’t looked at me the same since we left Celeste’s safehouse. His touch had withdrawn just slightly, like he was suddenly afraid of leaving fingerprints. Or maybe afraid of what I’d see if I looked too close.And I was noticing.I leaned against the dusty balcony railing of the safehouse, arms crossed, watching the midnight breeze ripple through the city below like secrets passed between buildings. My thoughts wouldn’t stop spinning, dragging me back to the cryptic files Celeste had shown us.My mother’s face haunted every image.And now this drive we were meant to unlock, this supposedly damning piece of truth, sat buried in the folds of my coat like a heart I didn’t want to beat.Behind me, the creak of floorboards.Julian.He stepped beside me, but he didn’t touch me. That, more than anything,