***
The wind cut sharp across my face as we drove away from Hollow Pines, the silence in the SUV heavier than the blood-soaked bandage around my arm. No one spoke. Not Jace, who held my hand like I'd disappear. Not Theo, whose eyes never left the road. And not Ivy, asleep in the back seat, her breathing shallow but steady.
Savannah was locked in Theo's reinforced safehouse bunker. Bound. Sedated. But alive. I should've felt triumphant. Instead, all I felt was... empty.
Because Dani was still out there.
And she had Roman's blood and Savannah's rage in her veins.
***
Back at the Safehouse 11:17 A.M.
Theo patched me up with quiet precision. Jace hovered nearby, pacing like a wolf without a kill. My shoulder burned, but it was nothing compared to the wildfire in my chest.
"She let us take Savannah," I said aloud, watching Theo's face. "She could've helped her. Fought back."
Theo nodded slowly. "Because Savannah was never the endgame. She was the decoy."
Jace's jaw clenched. "And Dani's the real threat."
I looked at them both, something new sparking behind my ribs. Purpose.
"She's not going to wait long. She'll move fast, and she'll move smart."
Theo met my eyes. "Then we need to be smarter."
***
That Night Jace's Bedroom.
The world was burning. But in that moment, I needed the only fire that soothed me.
Him.
Jace kissed me like it was the last time. Like survival was stitched into our mouths. He undressed me slowly, reverently, until I stood bare in the dim light of the room, his eyes devouring every scar, every bruise, every truth.
He trailed his fingers down my back, then pressed me against the windowpane, the cool glass sending a shiver through my spine.
"You're stronger than all of them," he whispered against my neck. "And more dangerous."
"You say that like it's a compliment."
He slid into me with one hard, perfect thrust. "It is."
I gasped, nails raking down his back as he rocked into me—slow, deep, dominant.
He spun me around, lifting me with one arm as he drove me into the mattress, our bodies slick with sweat and defiance. He kissed my collarbone, my jaw, my lips—branding me.
When I shattered beneath him, it wasn't just from pleasure.
It was the realization that for the first time since this war began…
I wanted to live.
For him.
With him.
***
Next Morning Mission Briefing – 6:04 A.M.
Theo unrolled a map across the kitchen island.
"Dani's moved," he said. "We traced a string of coded messages from Savannah's old contacts. She's heading for one place."
Jace frowned. "Where?"
Theo tapped a point northeast of D.C.
"Tranquil Hollow. It's an abandoned psychiatric facility turned military blacksite. Rumor says Roman experimented there before the Crow curriculum was finalized."
My stomach knotted. "That place was supposed to be demolished."
"It was," Theo said. "On paper."
Jace looked at me. "You ready for one more fight?"
I laced my fingers through his.
"I was built for this."
***
Dani stood before a wall of monitors, her reflection flickering over surveillance feeds. Her eyes, cool and unblinking, studied Savannah's captured image. Bruised. Defeated. Weak.
"Such a waste," she murmured.
She turned as a tall man stepped into the room, his face shadowed, his build unmistakably trained.
"She moved against protocol," he said. "And failed."
Dani nodded. "Which is why we'll do it right. No drama. No noise. Just precision."
The man handed her a syringe filled with black serum—the original. Pure.
"The last vial," he said. "Untouched. Roman's legacy."
Dani held it up to the light.
"No," she whispered. "Mine now."
***
Later That Night – Jace, Theo, and I stood on the ridge, overlooking the decayed asylum swallowed by fog.
A single light burned from the west wing.
Theo checked his watch. "We go in ten."
I adjusted the blade on my hip, the gun at my back.
"Ready?" Jace asked.
I nodded.
And for the first time since my father's death, I didn't feel like a survivor.
I felt like a warrior.
Because some stories weren't just about pain.
They were about rising from it.
***
And Dani Vale?
She was waiting.
And she wasn't alone.