Honey goes first, practically vibrating with the desire to fight the sky. Snow follows, grinning like he’s already planning something stupid. Ghost limps, jaw clenched, eyes darting. Hatchet moves like a shadow. Bones pauses just long enough to scan the perimeter, then boards.
I’m last.
Valentine stops me at the threshold with one hand, light on my chest. Seytan stands a few metres back, watching like she’s at a viewing gallery. Her smile is a promise.
Valentine’s voice is calm. “Do not mistake this for release.”
I lean in close, teeth bared. “Do not mistake me for controllable. You may have leashed me, but I’m nobody’s tamed pet.”
Valentine’s eyes hold mine. “I don’t.”
He steps back and I board.
The cabin is tight. Six men packed together with the smell of oil and metal and restrained violence. Valentine climbs in last, settling opposite us like he’s taking a seat in a meeting. Not a flight. A deployment briefing.
The rotor whine rises. The island falls away beneath us. For a second, the water is all I can see – black and endless. And then the mainland appears on the horizon, a smear of lights like a mouth full of teeth.
Ghost whispers, barely audible over the engine, “We’re actually leaving.”
I know why he seems so shocked. It felt like this day would never come. I thought Seytan was going to keep us locked up until we died. Or at least until she found Kayla and brought her back here herself.
Honey laughs softly. “Yeah. For now.”
Bones watches Valentine. “Where are we going?”
Valentine doesn’t look out the window. Doesn’t watch the island shrink. Doesn’t watch Seytan become a dot and then nothing.
His focus is forward.
“Containment quarters,” he says. “Designated shelter. You will be supervised.”
Snow tilts his head. “So a new prison but on solid ground.”
Valentine’s gaze flicks to him. “Call it whatever helps you behave.”
My hands flex on my knees. The implant aches like a bruise under bone. It hums under my skin like a reminder: hell doesn’t need walls if it’s inside your body.
I close my eyes and breathe and let my emotions sharpen to a point, planning what I’ll do the moment I find her.
Kayla is out there. She is not a variable. She is not an objective. And she ismine.
If Valentine is truly on our side, he’ll help me get her back…if he isn’t?—
Then he’s just another thing in my way.
Because if they think they’re deploying monsters and controlling the direction they’ve forgotten something basic: Monsters don’t hunt on command.
They hunt what they want.
And what I want is Kayla.
Everything else can burn.
I DON’T THINK HE’S TAKING CALLS FROM THIS POSTCODE
Fighter (Gilead Remix) - Power-Haus
Kookaburra
