Chapter 27: What They Take
The message arrived without warning.
No encryption. No hesitation.
A location.
Cyan's blood ran cold the moment he saw it. "That's not random."
Mira leaned closer. The coordinates pulled at something familiar, something buried. "It's one of the old sites."
A Seraph facility.
One that was supposed to be empty.
Another message followed, this one deliberate.
We have him.
Cyan's breath caught. "They're lying."
But he already knew they weren't.
The network pulsed violently—panic, half-formed messages colliding in a flood of fear.
Cyan was helping us—
He stayed behind—
They separated us—
Mira turned sharply. "Cyan?"
He was already moving, scanning feeds, ripping through firewalls with reckless speed. "They isolated me," he said, voice strained. "I didn't even feel it happen."
And then—
The connection snapped.
The room fell silent.
Mira stared at the dead screen.
Vale had stopped watching.
He had taken.
Across the city, Cyan opened his eyes to white light and restraints he recognized too well. Glass walls. Clean floors. No shadows.
Vale stood waiting.
"You should have stayed a myth," Vale said calmly.
Cyan lifted his head despite the pain. "You're afraid."
Vale smiled faintly. "I'm disappointed."
Back in the safehouse, Mira stood absolutely still.
They had taken him.
Not the network. Not the movement.
Him.
She reached for the console, hands steady, eyes burning with something colder than fear.
"They want leverage," she said aloud to no one. "They chose the wrong kind."
She began to plan.
Not a broadcast.
Not a warning.
A retrieval.
Emberlight had crossed the last line.
And Mira was done letting them decide what could be taken.