Chapter 80

POV: DualDamien:The smell of smoke is still stuck in my skin. No matter how much I scrubbed my hands, I can still smell the warehouse fire. I can still feel the heat on my face. My blood is humming with a restless, angry energy that won't go away.I’m supposed to be sleeping. I’m supposed to be resting for the next move. But my feet are moving before I even decide where to go. I find myself standing in front of Sera’s door.The hallway is dark. The whole mansion is quiet. I should turn around. I should let her sleep. But the need to see her, to make sure she’s real and safe and away from the fire, is like a weight in my chest.I knocked softly.The door opens almost immediately.Sera is standing there. She’s wearing a soft, oversized shirt, her hair a bit messy from the bed, but her eyes are wide and awake. She doesn't look like someone who was sleeping. She looks like someone who was waiting."Damien," she whispers.I don't say anything. I just step into the room, and she closes th

Last Updated : 2026-01-22

Chapter 81

POV: Damien Marrow reached out just before the sun came up. The screen on my desk flickered with static for a few seconds before the picture cleared. It was a grainy, live video feed. It had been bounced through so many different servers to hide its location that the quality was terrible, but I could see exactly what I needed to see. Gideon. He looked worse than the last time I’d seen him. He wasn't just thin; he looked like he was wasting away. His shoulders were slumped, and his head hung low, like he’d finally learned that fighting back only brought more pain. One of his eyes was swollen shut, and there was dried, dark blood on the corner of his mouth. But he was breathing. It was shallow and shaky, but he was alive. I gripped the edge of my desk so hard my knuckles turned white. A cold, sharp feeling sliced through my chest. I didn't feel relieved. Relief is for when someone is safe. Gideon was anything but safe. “When was this taken?” I asked. Marrow’s voice sounded r

Last Updated : 2026-01-23

Chapter 82

POV: SeraThe house was quiet.I sat alone in a small study in the west wing. It was a room Damien hardly ever used. Sunlight stretched across the floor in long, pale stripes, and dust floated in the air like nothing was wrong. I had Gideon’s files spread out on the desk again. Not the clean, polished versions Damien showed me, but the messy pieces. Old notebooks. Secret messages. Notes that were never supposed to be seen together.I had stopped crying days ago. Now, I just thought. I moved through the information slowly, like every thought could be a trap.At first, the debt seemed simple. Numbers usually are. There were lists of money sent and received. There were dates that lined up with the months after my mother died. The story I always believed was that Gideon borrowed money from Black Tide to keep us alive, to help us hide, and to buy us time.But as I looked closer, I realized the numbers were just a cover. The real debt wasn't about money. It was about silence. It was about w

Last Updated : 2026-01-23

Chapter 83

POV: Third PersonSilas didn’t rush traps. He built them like a piece of art.The news went out at dawn. It was sent through secret channels that were supposed to be private, which meant they were actually the fastest way to spread a rumor. It started as a whisper, then it grew into a roar that reached everyone who mattered in the city.Black Tide was offering a trade.It was clean and public. And it was a dare. Silas was promising to hand over Gideon Hale… alive.The meeting spot was an old, abandoned transit station on the coast. It was a place made of crumbling concrete and rusted metal, sitting right between the city and the ocean. Silas called it "neutral ground," but in their world, there was no such thing. Every inch of that station was a potential grave.The message had rules, of course. Silas didn't want any police, any big armies, or any surprises. He wanted Damien Vescari to come in person. He wanted him to come alone.If Damien followed the rules, Gideon would walk free.S

Last Updated : 2026-01-24

Chapter 84

POV: DamienI arrived exactly three minutes late.I didn't do it because I was messy or because I miscalculated or got lost. I did it because I knew Silas hated waiting. I wanted him to feel that tiny bit of frustration before he even saw my face.The old transit station looked like a skeleton picked clean by the salt and the wind. Big concrete ribs stood open to the air, and rusted train tracks cut through the cracked stone. The ocean breathed heavily just a few feet away. Silas called this "neutral ground."There is no such thing. Every corner of this place belonged to someone who wanted me dead.I got out of the car alone.I didn't show any weapons. I didn't bring a line of guards. I didn't have an army backing me up. It was just me, my boots hitting the concrete with a loud thud that echoed through the empty space. I could feel a hundred sets of eyes on me… hiding on rooftops, behind broken windows, and tucked into shadows. I heard the tiny hum of cameras. I saw drones flying so h