جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 60

Elara’s POVThe sharp echo of gunfire still rang in my ears as the intruder collapsed to the ground. My chest heaved, my pulse drumming violently against my ribs. For a moment, I thought we were safe but the shadow at the far end of the corridor told me otherwise. Someone had been lying in wait, calculating every move we had made.Ruin’s grip on my wrist was iron. He pulled me closer, pressing his chest against my back so that I could feel the tension vibrating through his body. “They wanted you isolated,” he said quietly. “You are their prize.”I shivered. The weight of those words settled heavily on me. I had known following him was dangerous, but I had never imagined how precise their attack had been. Every step, every distraction, and every hallway full of smoke had been planned to keep me away from him.Before I could respond, another figure appeared, emerging from a side passage I hadn’t noticed. This one moved faster, more coordinated, like a trained predator. My heart skipped.

Elara’s POVThe alarms did not stop. They went through the underground hallway in sharp, mechanical waves that made my nerves feel tense and uncomfortable. Red emergency lights flashed along the reinforced walls, turning every face into something harsher and more suspicious. Dante was gone. The detention wing had been breached from the inside and someone within Nightfall had opened his cell.That meant the club was not only divided, but it was infected.Ruin walked fast, and I kept pace beside him. Axel moved ahead of us, speaking into his comms and issuing orders that echoed down the corridor. Security teams work toward access points, Steel doors began slamming shut in timed intervals.“Override source?” Ruin asked.“Internal console,” Axel replied. “Level -2 operations hub.”That was not a random access point, that was controlled by senior command.My stomach tightened.When we reached the operations hub, two guards were already unconscious on the floor. They were alive, but they ha

Elara’s POVThe live feed did not flicker. It remained steady on the main screen while explosions continued to shake the estate. The masked figure stood inside the bunker corridor, calm and deliberate, holding what looked like a detonator in one hand. The camera angle shifted slightly, revealing reinforced doors behind him, he was not improvising, he knew exactly where he was.Axel spoke first.“That corridor is level -3,” he said. “Only internal clearance grants access.”Ruin did not respond immediately. He studied the screen, memorizing details. His mind was already moving.“If they detonate inside the bunker,” Axel continued, “we lose our fallback position.”Ruin nodded once. “Lock remote access to level -3. Disable all wireless signal relays in that sector.”“Already in progress,” Axel replied.Another explosion rocked the southern perimeter. Dust fell from the ceiling again, but the screen remained intact.“They timed this,” I said quietly. “The external assault is a distraction.

Elara’s POVThe alarm from the garden turned out to be a false alarm.One of the perimeter sensors had been tampered with, but no one had crossed the inner wall. The damage was deliberate and precise, meant to test response time rather than start an attack. Ruin doubled the patrols anyway, and he ordered a sweep of the surrounding properties and placed additional guards along the eastern boundary.The estate returned to its controlled sound, but something inside me did not.Three days later, I woke before sunrise with a strange heaviness in my stomach. It was not pain exactly, but it was unfamiliar. I sat upright slowly and waited for the feeling to pass. When it did not, I pressed my palm lightly against my abdomen.“It is nothing,” I whispered to myself.Stress could do many things to the body. Lack of sleep could shift appetite and mood. We had endured weeks of tension, and it was reasonable that my body reacted.I stood and walked to the bathroom. The cool floor grounded me as I l

Elara’s POVThe estate did not sleep that night. Security teams moved through the halls with controlled urgency. Doors that were usually left open were shut and locked, conversations happened in low voices, and every member of staff avoided direct eye contact.The breach had not been minor.Someone inside Ruin’s territory had accessed private medical logs, not financial accounts, not shipment routes but my medical records. That meant intent, that meant planning and it meant betrayal.I sat in the bedroom, fully dressed, waiting for Ruin to return. He had gone to the control room with Axel and two of his most trusted men. He did not ask me to stay put this time. He simply gave an order.“Do not leave this room.”I obeyed, not because I was afraid but because I knew what he was capable of when betrayed.The door opened nearly an hour later. Ruin stepped inside with a tension in his shoulders that I had only seen twice before. Once when my father resurfaced, and once when Meridian tried