under his control
“Checkmate.”
The light engulfed the room bright, soundless, and infinite. It tore through the machines, through the codes, through the decades of horror that Victoria had created. For a heartbeat, I felt everything:Liam’s voice calling my name, my father’s love, the pain, the freedom, and then nothing at all.
Darkness swallowed me.
But somewhere in that silence, I felt a pulse again. Not my own this time. A new one. Slow, faint, alive.
And I knew this wasn’t death. It was a rebirth.