Lily's POV
"They're bluffing," Dante says, staring at the text. "They won't kill the children. They need them as leverage."
My truth-sense flares immediately.
"You're wrong," I say. "They absolutely will kill them. That text wasn't a lie."
Dante's jaw tightens. "Then we ignore the ultimatum. We find where they're holding the kids and extract them by force."
"In one hour? That's impossible."
"Nothing's impossible with enough power." His eyes flash dangerously. "I'll tear this city apart until I find them."
"And how many innocent people die while you're doing that?" I grab his arm. "Think, Dante! This is exactly what they want—you out of control, destroying everything."
He yanks his arm free. "Then what do you suggest? That one of us just volunteers to die?"
The car goes silent.
Because that's exactly what I'm thinking.
"Lily, no." Dante's voice is sharp. "Whatever you're planning—"
"You said it yourself. You're worth more than me. You have power, resources, armies." I meet his eyes. "I'm just a detective who senses lies. If one of us has to die to save those kids—"
"No."
"It should be me—"
"I said no!" His power explodes outward. The car windows crack. The driver slams on the brakes.
We sit there in the middle of the street, both breathing hard.
"You don't get to make that choice," Dante says quietly. "This is my nephew. My family's mess. Not yours."
"Those kids don't care whose mess this is. They just want to go home."
My phone buzzes again: Fifty-nine minutes. Clock's ticking.
Dante makes a call. "Get me everything we have on Victoria Cross's current location. Bank records, security footage, phone logs—everything. Five minutes."
He hangs up and turns to me. "We're going to find proof that Victoria's behind this. Then we use that to negotiate."
"Negotiate with who? The person who just gave us an impossible choice?"
"With Victoria herself." His smile is cold and terrifying. "If she wants me broken, she's going to have to watch me burn her empire to the ground first."
We drive to Cross Estate's main headquarters—a massive building downtown that houses the family's business operations. Dante storms through security like he owns the place. Which, technically, he does.
His grandmother's office is on the top floor. Dante doesn't knock, just blasts the door open with his telekinesis.
Victoria Cross sits behind a huge desk, looking like a queen on a throne. She's older, elegant, and her eyes are ice-cold.
"Dante." She doesn't even look surprised. "I heard about the kidnapping. Terrible business."
"Cut the act." Dante slams his hands on her desk. "I know you're behind this."
"Behind what, exactly?" Victoria's expression doesn't change. "The kidnapping of your nephew? Don't be ridiculous."
My truth-sense stays quiet. She's telling the truth.
Wait. What?
"She's not lying," I say, confused.
Dante turns to me. "What?"
"She really doesn't know what you're talking about." I study Victoria. "She's not behind the kidnapping."
Victoria's eyes narrow at me. "And who are you?"
"The truth-sensor you're about to wish you'd hired yourself," I snap. "Because if you're not behind this, someone's setting you up. That message about you sending regards? It's fake."
For the first time, Victoria looks uncertain. "What message?"
Dante shows her the video. Her face goes pale.
"I didn't send that," she says. "I would never endanger Ethan."
Truth.
"Then who did?" Dante demands.
Victoria stands, moving to a safe hidden behind a painting. She pulls out files and spreads them on the desk.
"Three weeks ago, someone hacked our family's communication systems. They sent emails using my credentials. Made transfers using my authorization codes." She looks at Dante. "I've been investigating quietly, trying to find who's impersonating me before it damages the family reputation."
"And you didn't think to mention this?" Dante's voice is deadly.
"I thought I could handle it myself." Victoria's mask cracks slightly. "I didn't realize they'd use it to target Ethan."
My phone buzzes: Forty-five minutes. Have you chosen who dies yet?
"We need to find them now," I say desperately. "Can you track where that text came from?"
Victoria nods and takes my phone, connecting it to her computer. Her fingers fly across the keyboard.
"The signal's bouncing through multiple servers, but—" She pauses. "Wait. This routing pattern. I've seen it before."
"Where?" Dante leans over her shoulder.
"House Blackwell's private network." Victoria looks up. "Someone in Blackwell is doing this."
Everything clicks into place. The symbol in the warehouse. The conspiracy Sterling mentioned. House Blackwell recruiting low-level mages.
"They're trying to start a war between Cross and Sterling families," I realize. "Make it look like you're killing each other's children."
"And when the families go to war," Dante says grimly, "Blackwell rises to power in the chaos."
Victoria's already making calls, mobilizing her own security teams.
"I'm sending people to every Blackwell property in Houston," she says. "We'll find them."
"In forty-three minutes?" I check my phone. "That's impossible."
"Then we make it possible." Dante's eyes meet mine. "I need you to come with me. Your truth-sensing might be the only way to know if we've found the right location."
Before I can answer, the lights go out.
Emergency generators kick in, bathing everything in red light.
"What's happening?" Victoria demands.
An explosion rocks the building. Then another. And another.
Dante pulls me away from the windows just as they shatter inward.
"They're attacking the building," he says. "This is a distraction."
My phone lights up with a new message: Wrong choice. Since you couldn't decide who dies, we've decided for you. Check the roof.
Dante and I race to the stairs, climbing twenty floors. My lungs burn. My legs shake. But we don't stop.
We burst onto the roof.
Someone's standing at the edge. A woman I recognize—the same one from the safe house roof who jumped and disappeared.
She's holding a detonator.
"Hello again, Lily Chase," she says with that terrible smile. "Remember me?"
"Who are you?" Dante demands.
"I'm the person Victoria Cross hired to clean up her mistakes five years ago. The person who helped you cover up Westfield." Her eyes are dead. "And now I'm the person who's going to make you both pay for it."
She presses the detonator.
Nothing happens.
She presses it again. Still nothing.
"Looking for this?" A man steps out of the shadows, holding the real detonator.
Detective Sterling.
But something's wrong. His eyes are cold. Empty.
"Sterling?" I whisper.
"Sorry, Lily." He doesn't sound sorry at all. "But this was never about saving the kids. It was about making Cross suffer."
He presses the button.
Somewhere below us, a massive explosion tears through the building.
The roof starts to collapse beneath our feet.
Dante grabs me, his telekinesis creating a shield around us as we fall.
The last thing
I see before everything goes black is Sterling's face, smiling as he watches us drop.