Hellfire did not announce itself.
It never had.
From the outside, it was nothing—an industrial shell buried in the dead zones of the city, rust-stained walls, inactive shipping docks, a place inspectors stopped remembering after their first bribe. No signs. No cameras that could be traced. No names on any paper that mattered.
Officially, Hellfire belonged to a ghost.
A syndicate folded years ago. A businessman who died quietly. A shell company owned by another shell company, all roads leading nowhere.
Unofficially—
Hellfire belonged to Brine.
He stood on the upper catwalk now, boots planted on steel grating, watching his people move below like controlled flame. Men and women in black tactical gear trained, cleaned weapons, checked routes on holographic maps that floated faint blue in the dim air.
This wasn't chaos.
This was discipline sharpened into something dangerous.
Brine rested his forearms on the railing, jaw tight. He hadn't slept. Not since Lena's chest had risen under his hands. Not since he'd felt how close death had come to stealing her without permission.
Hellfire had been built for moments like this.
Not defense. Not conquest.
Retribution.
A lieutenant approached quietly. "Perimeter's sealed. No signals in or out. Medical wing reports she's stable."
Brine nodded once. "Keep rotating guards every forty minutes. No patterns."
"Yes, sir."
The man hesitated. "Moody sent a message."
That made Brine turn.
"What did he say?"
The lieutenant swallowed. "He said… I know this place is yours."
A muscle jumped in Brine's jaw.
Of course he did.
Moody had always seen too much.
"Anything else?" Brine asked.
"He said Rafferty is moving assets east. Private security, labs, transport units. He's preparing for open war."
Brine's mouth curved—not a smile. Something colder.
"Good," he said. "So am I."
Deep inside Hellfire, Lena slept.
Machines hummed softly around her—not restraints, not cages. Just monitoring. Protection. Choice.
She stirred, breath uneven, dreams fractured by steel corridors and needles and voices that called her important without meaning it.
Brine stood in the doorway and did not step closer.
He'd learned long ago that some things shattered if you hovered too close.
Mr Tan joined him, hands clasped behind his back. "She'll wake soon."
"I know."
"You should rest."
Brine didn't answer.
Instead, he said, "Hellfire was never supposed to be used."
Tan studied him. "None of this was."
Brine's eyes stayed on Lena. "I built it after the first purge. When Rafferty erased half the Silver Mark to secure his throne. I swore if he ever came for what wasn't his again… there'd be something waiting."
Tan's voice softened. "You became the thing he fears most."
"No," Brine said quietly. "I became the thing he can't control."
Elsewhere, far above ground—
Rafferty stood before a wall of screens, gold light reflecting off his cold eyes. Cities moved. Money flowed. Men died on command.
But something had shifted.
Hellfire had entered the board.
He turned to his advisor. "Find out who owns it."
The advisor hesitated. "Sir… every lead loops back into dead accounts."
Rafferty's fingers curled slowly. "Then someone very alive is hiding behind them."
He leaned forward. "And they just declared war."
In the red-lit warehouse, Moody smiled.
Hellfire.
Of course.
He'd suspected for years. Brine's disappearances. His resources. His impossible timing.
"You finally stepped out of the shadows," Moody murmured.
One of his lieutenants frowned. "Sir, if Brine owns Hellfire—"
"Then he's been lying to everyone," Moody replied calmly. "Including the girl."
The room stilled.
Moody's smile widened, sharp and delighted. "Which means when I take her… I won't just be stealing a weapon."
He turned, eyes burning red under the lights.
"I'll be breaking a king."
Back in Hellfire, Lena's eyes fluttered open.
The ceiling above her was dark steel, lights dimmed low. Not a prison.
A refuge.
Brine felt it the moment she woke—like a wire pulled tight in his chest.
She turned her head slowly, eyes finding him in the doorway.
"You came," she whispered.
He stepped inside then. Careful. Controlled.
"I said I would."
Her gaze searched his face. "This place… where are we?"
Brine answered honestly, but not completely.
"Somewhere Rafferty can't reach," he said.
Not yet.
Not without burning the world down.
Outside the walls of Hellfire, alliances shifted. Vows were sharpened. And enemies began to realize the truth too late—
Fire doesn't ask permission before it spreads.
And Hellfire had finally been lit.