The storm came not with thunder but with silence—too thick, too deliberate.
Celeste and I descended from the rooftop, our steps synchronized, like predators who had finally found the scent of blood. My mind burned with the footage. That terrified version of me... helpless, restrained, screaming. And Kai—he knew. All this time, he knew.
My chest tightened.
Why didn't he tell me?
We reached the underground archives beneath the west wing. The entrance was hidden behind the grand library's fourth shelf, and Celeste pressed her finger to a small engraving—a hawk.
The wall shifted with a hiss.
Cold air. Dust. And secrets.
"We need to find the rest of Project Arin's files," she said, her voice clipped.
"And destroy them?" I asked.
Celeste looked at me, eyes gleaming. "No. We leak them."
I paused. "You're serious?"
She nodded. "Let the world see what Ravian built. What Kai protected. What Leo financed."
The betrayal ran deeper than I'd feared.
---
Meanwhile – At Leo's Safehouse
Leo paced, his phone buzzing with missed calls. He hadn't heard from Celeste, and Nyra's signal was gone. Every part of him screamed that things were unraveling too fast.
Behind him, the masked man stepped out of the shadows. "You should've stopped her when you had the chance."
Leo turned. "I don't kill women."
The man chuckled. "No, you just love them... until they ruin your empire."
Leo didn't respond. His silence said it all.
Then the man whispered, "She knows, Leo. About Project Arin. About the girl tied to the bed."
Leo flinched.
"That was never supposed to surface."
"But it did. And now she'll burn it all down."
---
Back to Nyra
Celeste was gone. She'd slipped into the eastern wing to disable the estate's surveillance, and I stood alone, scanning the dusty archive.
Then, I heard it.
Footsteps.
Too soft to be Kai.
Too heavy to be Celeste.
I spun, grabbing the metal rod from the table.
A man emerged from the mist that filtered through the broken glass dome above. His face was covered, but his eyes... glowed amber in the dark.
"Hello, Nyra," he said, stepping closer.
"Who are you?"
"I'm the one who created you."
The world tilted.
"What...?"
He raised his hand. A thin scar glinted across his wrist—the same as mine.
"We're mirrors," he said. "And it's time you remembered why."
---
To be continued...