Selene sat across from the Broker, her spine straight, eyes unblinking. She couldn't show fear not here, not now. The overhead light cast half his face in shadow, but it was the other half the one that smirked without kindness that disturbed her more.
Kai stood behind her, silent, a shadow on standby. His presence grounded her even when everything else tilted sideways.
"You want answers," the Broker said, folding his hands. "But I wonder—do you want the truth, or just something you can live with?"
Selene's voice was steady. "I want what my father buried. All of it."
The Broker leaned back in his chair, amused. "Then we begin with a name. Mila didn't die because she was innocent. She died because she uncovered something she was never meant to see."
Selene's throat tightened. "Like what?"
Kai shifted, just barely. His discomfort was palpable.
The Broker tapped a file on the table. "Your father didn't just launder money. He sold intel. Biometric data. Psychological profiles. Blackmail material. Mila found a server node buried inside a secured lab in Prague. And she used your family name to access it."
Selene's mind raced. "She used my name?"
"She signed in as Selene Hart."
The air left her lungs.
Kai's jaw clenched. "You said she was careful."
"She was," the Broker replied. "But they were more careful."
He pushed the file across the table. Selene opened it, hands trembling. Photographs. Blueprints. Satellite images. A facility labeled only as Asphodel.
She looked up. "What is it?"
"Where the real ghosts are kept," the Broker said. "And if your father ever kept a secret worth killing for, it's there."
A beat passed.
Then Selene asked, softly, "Why are you helping me?"
The Broker gave her a long look. "Because your father made promises he didn't keep. And some of us never forget betrayal."
The room fell silent.
Then he added, "And because when this burns down, I want to watch the flames."
Back on the docks, Selene gripped the folder to her chest. The fog had thickened, swallowing the lights of the city behind them. Kai hadn't said a word since they'd left the ship.
She finally broke the silence. "You knew about Mila's login?"
"I suspected," he muttered.
"Why didn't you say something?"
"Because I didn't want you to hate her."
Selene stopped walking. "I don't. I hate him. My father turned her into a weapon. Just like he did to me."
Kai looked at her then, truly looked like the weight of her words hit deeper than bullets.
"You're not a weapon, Selene."
"Then what am I?"
"Human," he said. "Wounded. Angry. Alive."
She blinked. "You're not exactly the nurturing type, you know."
A hint of a smile tugged at his mouth. "Don't get used to it."
She turned to face him fully. The night curled around them, cool and heavy.
"Do you ever regret this?" she asked.
"This?"
"Helping me. Staying."
He didn't hesitate. "Every day."
Ouch.
But before she could respond, he added, "And every night, I don't."
That shut her up.
He stepped closer, his voice low. "This isn't some game for me, Selene. You're not a job. Not anymore."
Her breath caught. "Then what am I?"
His hand brushed her cheek—so gently it made her ache.
"You're the only reason I haven't walked away from all of this."
Her heart thudded against her ribs.
"But I need you to live," he said. "I need you to survive this. Because if you don't…"
He didn't finish.
He didn't have to.
She closed the distance between them, her lips barely a breath away from his. "Then stay with me."
"I'm here," he whispered.
And this time, when they kissed, it wasn't rushed or angry.
It was surrender.
They didn't sleep.
Not because they couldn't—but because sleep felt like a lie when the world was on fire.
Selene sat on the hotel bed in Kai's hoodie, hair still damp from the rain. He sat beside her, shirtless, bruises like constellations across his ribs. She traced one absently, her touch featherlight.
"You always look like you've been to war," she murmured.
"I usually have."
She smiled—soft, sad. "I used to think scars were ugly."
Kai met her gaze. "And now?"
"They're proof someone survived."
He exhaled. "Then I must be beautiful."
She laughed real, bright and it startled them both.
"God," she whispered. "I haven't laughed like that in years."
He studied her face. "You should do it more."
"With you around? Not likely."
He grinned, and something in her chest loosened. It felt dangerous—how easily he made her forget the blood, the lies, the death chasing them. But maybe that was the point. Maybe love was the only rebellion she had left.
She leaned into him, and for once, he didn't pull away.
They lay in silence for a long time, his hand tracing circles on her arm.
Then he said, "We leave for Prague tomorrow."
"You sure the Broker was telling the truth?"
"No," Kai said. "But we're out of time. Whatever's in that facility your father wanted it buried. And I want it exhumed."
Selene nodded. "Then we dig."
TWO DAYS LATER — PRAGUE
The rain hadn't let up.
The Asphodel facility sat hidden beneath the façade of an abandoned museum, just like the Broker's file had described. Gated. Guarded. Cloaked.
Selene and Kai watched it from across the street, parked in a stolen van with tinted windows and a trunk full of contingency plans.
"How many guards?" Selene asked.
"Eight outside. More inside. Cameras at every entrance. No backdoor."
She smiled. "So we make one."
He arched a brow. "You've changed."
"No," she said. "I've just stopped pretending."
He looked at her like she was a fire he couldn't put out.
"Tonight," he said. "We go in."
"Together," she added.
His hand found hers. "Always."
The plan was chaos.
Diversion at the west gate. Infiltration from the roof. Silent takedowns. Limited blood. No names.
But it didn't go as planned. They never do.
Halfway through the extraction, the alarms blared. Red lights. Screaming steel. Gunfire.
Selene ran through the hallways with a flash drive clenched in her fist, Kai's voice in her earpiece shouting directions. She turned the corner—and froze.
A man stood blocking the exit. Armed. Smirking.
"Miss Hart," he drawled. "Your father sends his regrets."
She raised her gun,but he was faster.
The shot rang out,but it wasn't hers.
Kai tackled the man from the side, both crashing into the wall. A second shot. Blood. Screams. Then silence.
Kai staggered up, blood on his shoulder. "Go," he rasped. "Move!"
She grabbed his arm, helped him down the hallway as the building burned behind them.
By the time they reached the van, Kai's breathing was shallow.
She drove like a demon, heart in her throat.
"Stay with me," she kept saying. "Don't you dare die on me."
He gave a weak smile. "I told you. You're not a job."
"You're a pain in my ass," she snapped, eyes wet. "But I'm not losing you. Not now."
They made it to the safe house.
She stitched his shoulder with trembling hands, fury and fear mixing behind her eyes.
"You don't get to die," she said. "Not after kissing me like that. Not after promising to stay."
"I didn't promise," he muttered.
She glared. "Then do it now."
He reached up, brushed a tear from her cheek. "I promise."
And when she kissed him this time, it was slow. Fierce. Final.
Because they both knew what came next wouldn't leave room for regrets.
Only love. Or fire,maybe both
The safe house was quiet,too quiet.
Selene moved through the dim space with the flash drive in hand, the one they'd nearly died retrieving. Kai was asleep upstairs, finally sedated after losing too much blood. She couldn't stay still, not when the weight of what they'd found pressed against her ribs like a loaded gun.
She inserted the drive into a secured laptop and waited.
A blinking cursor.
Then files. Hundreds. Names. Codenames. Experiments.
A folder titled EDEN / HART — MK13 caught her eye.
She clicked.
The first image to load was a birth certificate.
Not hers.
Her sister's.
Selene's breath froze. "No," she whispered.
Mila Hart. Born 7 minutes after Selene.
But Mila hadn't been her twin.
According to this—Mila wasn't even real. She had been created. Engineered. Part of something called Project Eden.
Selene scrolled faster, panic rising like bile.
Files detailed experimental gene mapping, synthetic emotion regulation, accelerated cognitive development.
Mila wasn't her sister.
She was her replacement.
A clone,built to perfect what Selene's father believed his daughter lacked: loyalty.
Selene's stomach turned.
Mila had never known. Or maybe she had—and that was why she'd searched. Why she'd died.
Selene clutched the laptop, bile rising in her throat.
She needed air.
The cold Prague night slapped her awake. She stood on the balcony, wind howling around her, hands gripping the iron railing so hard her knuckles turned white.
She heard the door open behind her.
Kai's voice was hoarse. "You shouldn't be out here."
She didn't look at him. "She wasn't my sister."
A pause. Then, softly: "Selene—"
"She was made," she said, voice trembling. "Created in a lab. Like a goddamn science experiment. My father… he didn't want a daughter. He wanted an heir. Something programmable."
Kai stepped beside her. "He didn't make you."
"No," she said. "But he tried to replace me."
He reached for her hand. She didn't pull away.
"You're not a replacement," he said.
"Then what am I, Kai?"
He turned her to face him. "You're the fire he couldn't control. That's why he tried to put it out."
Her eyes stung. "It doesn't make the guilt go away. I mourned her. I loved her. And now I don't even know what she was."
"She was yours," he said. "That's all that matters."
She buried her face in his chest, the tears finally coming.
He held her like the world was ending. Maybe it was
Later, in bed, they lay beneath heavy sheets. Kai's arm around her waist, her head tucked under his chin.
"You ever think about disappearing?" she asked.
"Every day," he said.
"If we stopped running… if we burned it all down and walked away…"
He was quiet for a moment. "I'd follow you."
Selene blinked up at him. "You would?"
"Don't act surprised."
"You don't strike me as the runaway type."
"I'm not," he said. "But for you, I'd break the pattern."
She smiled faintly. "That's the most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me."
He smirked. "That's sad."
She laughed into his chest.
Then he whispered, "Say the word, Selene. We disappear. Just us."
Her heart clenched.
She wanted to say yes.
But then she remembered Mila's eyes. The names in those files. The facility they'd left behind. The legacy her father still controlled.
She couldn't run. Not yet.
Instead, she whispered, "Soon."
He nodded, and didn't press her.
A WEEK LATER — SOUTHERN FRANCE
They arrived in a dusty town no one cared to map. The sun burned through the clouds like a warning.
Inside an old church converted into a data vault, Selene met with a contact: Imani, a former operative turned informant.
Imani narrowed her eyes at the drive. "Where the hell did you get this?"
"Does it matter?" Selene asked.
Imani slid a cigarette between her lips. "It does when it could get you killed."
She tapped a document open. Her brows shot up.
"Project Eden was terminated five years ago."
Selene's voice was sharp. "Then why are there files from this year?"
Imani didn't answer.
Kai crossed his arms. "Tell us what you know."
Imani glanced between them, then sighed. "There's a second facility. One your father doesn't control."
Selene frowned. "Who does?"
Imani hesitated. "Your mother."
Silence.
Selene laughed—cold, shocked. "That's not possible. She died when I was twelve."
Imani gave her a look. "That's what he wanted you to believe."
Kai stepped forward. "If she's alive…"
"She's not just alive," Imani said. "She's running the other half of Eden. The side that believes in evolution over control."
Selene reeled. "Why would she fake her death?"
"To protect you," Imani said. "She knew what your father was planning. And she vanished to stop it from the inside."
Kai muttered, "Jesus."
Selene was already moving toward the exit. "Where is she?"
"Corsica," Imani said. "She moves every few weeks. But if you're lucky—you might catch her before she disappears again."
THREE DAYS LATER (CORSICA)
They found the villa tucked into a cliffside, the sea crashing below like thunder. It was beautiful. Isolated. A place built for secrets.
Selene stood at the door, heart in her throat.
Kai placed a hand on her shoulder. "You sure?"
"No," she said. "But I have to know."
She knocked.
Footsteps.
Then—the door opened.
And there she was.
The woman from old photographs. Older now. A few silver strands in her dark hair. But those eyes Selene's eyes hadn't changed.
"Hello, Selene," the woman said.
Selene's mouth went dry. "Mom?"
Her mother's smile trembled. "You look just like I dreamed."
Kai stepped back, giving them space.
Selene stared. "Why?"
"Because he would've destroyed you," her mother said softly. "Just like he tried to destroy me."
Tears stung Selene's eyes. "You let me think you were dead."
"I had to. If he knew I was alive…"
Selene's voice cracked. "I needed you."
Her mother pulled her into a hug, arms wrapping tightly around her. "I'm here now. And I swear I won't run again."
Behind them, Kai stood watching.
And for the first time in years, Selene didn't feel alone.
But in the distance, a shadow moved a figure watching through binoculars.
A voice crackled in an earpiece.
"Target found. Initiate Protocol Black."