Chapter 60 – The Flip

RaineThe coin throbbed in my palm like a living entity, the ridged edge biting into my flesh until I felt it slice. Blood spread across the metal, red on silver, staining Cassian's name etched on it.The monitor wailed a flatline, sharp enough to shred my heart into pieces.Cassian—" My voice cracked. I shook him, desperate, his body slack in my arms, skin growing cold. His chest did not rise. His mouth opened, but no air went in."Breathe, damn you. Breathe for me."The storm outside battered the windows, thunder crashing like a countdown. Rain swept down the glass in crazy beats, as if mocking the rhythm his heart had missed.And then—The world fell silent. The booming storm, the wail of the machine, the rushing footsteps down the corridor—all ceased.Roman's voice crept through the silence, smooth and deadly, tendrils of smoke."Flip it, Raine. That's what it was made for.""No." My hold tightened. I couldn't—I wouldn't—gamble his soul on a cursed piece of metal.Roman's laughter

Last Updated : 2025-09-12

Chapter 61 – The Price of a Wish

RaineThe coin spun, glowing brighter with every turn as if it were drawing power from the raging storm outside. Lightning cracked the shattered window, casting lightning-shaped silhouettes across Roman's face. His eyes glowed with something less than human, cold as an animal on the point of pouncing."Pick it up," he commanded, his voice low and cutting, vibrating through the shattered air. "Do it now."I stood paralyzed. My frame trembled, my hand hovering over Cassian's chest. His skin was white as snow, his lips cyanotic. The machine wailed a rhythmic, unyielding flatline that shook to my very marrow.I wanted my entire soul to stretch out for that coin and grab it. To yell my need to the tempest and haul Cassian back, no matter the price.But Cassian's whisper remained, quiet but insistent. Don't flip it.Roman's boot scraped tile as he lunged forward. "Do you believe his ghost is noisier than mine? He's dead. That final breath was just nerves sparking. I can bring him back to yo

Last Updated : 2025-09-13

Chapter 62 – The Price of a Flip

RaineThe coin spun.Not just metal catching the faint light of the storm-wracked room—it was time itself suspended, the pivot of fate spinning above my shaking hand. The flip was endless, every spin a beat, every flash a soundless scream wracking its way out of my throat.Cassian lay motionless beside me, chest spasming, monitors wailing their pitiless dirge. Roman's silhouette filled the corner, sharp as a knife. Malik stood behind me, the weight of his silence holding me fast as my entire self felt disintegrating.The coin landed in my hand.Blood lined its surface, body-warm against cold metal. My eyes stung, and I clamped them shut, but I pried them open again, afraid to see, afraid not to. The future of it all—Cassian's life, mine, the baby we had yet to hold in our arms—hung on this piece of silver.I opened my fist.Heads.The world did not split apart, did not roar its approval. There was just the beep of a flatlining heart monitor and the fists of the storm against the windo

Last Updated : 2025-09-14

Chapter 63 – Shadows of the Deal

RaineThe coin burned in my palm.Not with flame, but with something colder—like frost clawing deep into my bone, leaving me hollow from the inside out. Every breath was harder to pull, my chest bound tighter, as if the flip had cut a piece of me out and replaced it with something sharp, alien, watching.Cassian's hand trembled in mine, his skin cool yet warm; I barely felt his pulse, but it was steady. Relief ought to have overwhelmed me, but it did not. Fear burrowed deeper, for I saw Roman's eyes slicing into me, savoring how my body betrayed the integrity of its own strength."You see?" Roman's voice dripped through the storm-lit room. "Already, it wears you down. Everyone wishes for a fracture. Every flip, an agreement you never signed for."Shut up," I spat, my voice trembling.Malik stepped forward, placing himself between me and Cassian, his posture bristling with suppressed violence. "What's the deal, Roman? What'd you do to her?"Roman's grin was toothy and cruel. "Nothing s

Last Updated : 2025-09-17

Chapter 64 – What the Coin Demands

RaineThe coin was cutting into me.Not literally, not yet, but with every second I held onto it, its ridged texture seemed keener, heavier, hungrier. It sank into my palm until I wasn't certain if the wetness was my perspiration, my blood, or something else more evil trying to seep out of me.Cassian's breathing shook alongside me, damp and jagged, a horrific accompaniment to the pounding of my heart. Malik shoved his jacket into Cassian's side, his jaw so hard-set it looked like it might crack. The floodlights cast him in cold shadows, his huge form coiled tight with anger he could not let loose. Not yet.And I?I was the axis.Cassian's existence. My essence. Their survival.My closest Greyborn soldier stepped forward, rifle raised. His visor glowed, reflecting the storm's light. "Now," he growled. "The coin. Or the boy dies."The boy.Not Cassian. Not the one that had bled and burned and battled alongside me. Not the one that had kept my hands from the ground when I was falling, t

Last Updated : 2025-10-06

Chapter 65: The Brother Death Forgot

RaineBehind him, the flames roared, curling up the metal walls, swallowing the hall in blistering heat. Smoke churned through the broken ceiling as if it were a living thing, and out of the center of that inferno, Roman Creed stepped forward, untouched, unburned, and alive.My breath caught in my throat.Cassian's knees almost buckled."Brother."The word cracked through the air like a fault line splitting open. For a heartbeat, none of us moved. Even Malik lowered his gun, his eyes wide with a shock I'd never seen on him.Roman looked exactly like the ghost Cassian could never stop mourning. The same steel-gray eyes, the same sharp jaw, the same haunted presence, but there was something new, though something colder, something that didn't belong in the realm of the living.His voice was soft.“You look like you've seen the dead rise.”Cassian staggered forward, fingers trembling, chest heaving.“You're dead,” he whispered. “I buried you. I—”"Yeah," Roman said simply. "You did.The s

Last Updated : 2025-11-21