Chapter 16: Echoes Beneath the Surface
The world outside had quieted, but inside Mira's mind, a storm raged.
Since the rooftop confessions and that stolen moment on the café steps, things had shifted. Their bond was no longer built on secrets and silence—it was growing roots, fragile yet real.
But Emberlight wasn't done with them.
That morning, a file arrived in Mira's inbox. No sender. No subject. Just one attachment.
When she opened it, her breath caught.
It was footage—grainy, low resolution—but unmistakable. A lab. A body. And Cyan's voice in the background, calm but trembling.
"I didn't sign up for this."
She turned to him, confronting him once more.
"I need to know everything," she said, her voice steady despite the fear in her eyes. "No more half-truths. No more saving me from the dark. If I'm in this, I'm in it all the way."
Cyan looked at her. Not as a threat. Not as a liability.
As a partner.
He nodded. "Then you need to see where it started."
That night, they packed light and left the city.
Not just to escape—but to uncover the past buried beneath Emberlight's lies.
Hand in hand.
Truth for truth.
Shadow for shadow.
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