We pause for half a heartbeat, listening.
A deeper boom rolls through the earth, dust raining softly from the ceiling.
An explosion. The tunnel shakes.
Conan grins again, teeth flashing in the dark. “Sounds like the party started without us.”
Declan’s eyes cut to me. “Go.”
I surge forward, every muscle coiled, my heart beating steady and violent in my chest.
The exit hatch is ahead.
Hunter’s voice crackles in my ear through comms. “Breach is live.”
Another burst of gunfire echoes. Screams. Shouting.
Then a second explosion that makes the walls tremble, as if they’re afraid.
We hit the ladder. One by one, we climb, weapons tight, breathing controlled.
I go last, because I’m the one who has to walk out into hell and make it kneel.
I push the hatch.
Cold night air slams into my face.
Smoke. Fire. Chaos.
And when I step out of the tunnel… the world above isn’t a meeting.
It isn’t peace.
It’s war.
Bodies on the ground. Blood in the dirt. Men scrambling. The sound of automatic fire ripping through the night like an anthem.
Lights flashing.
Alarms screaming.
Decadence burning at the edges, flames licking up somewhere far enough away that I can’t see it, but close enough that I can smell it. Looking at the scale of this, there is no way it’s just the Preachers men. This has Tatiana’s help written all over it.
And Madame Eve is trapped in the basement there, not the best way for her to finally go, but at least she suffered.
I raise my gun.
My brothers raise theirs.
And somewhere, through all the noise and ruin, my watch feels like a heartbeat against my skin.
Lily is locked behind steel. Lev is out there. And Maria is about to learn what happens when you touch what’s mine. When you cause pain to my girl. When you mess with our fucking future.
And if anything happens to my baby, Maria is going to wish she never existed.
“Let it burn,” I say again, to no one and everyone.
Then I step forward into the fire.
