When his breathing finally steadied, I asked the question.
"Do you remember your name?"
Quiet. Careful.
Stone went still.
For a moment, I thought he wouldn't answer. Thought maybe the question was too much, too soon, too raw.
Then he shook his head.
"No."
One word. But it carried the weight of everything he'd lost.
"I remember pieces. Flashes. A face in a mirror that might have been mine. A voice calling something I can't—" He exhaled. Shaky. "But the name. My name. It's gone."
I felt his grief through the bond. Not sharp like fresh pain. Deeper. The ache of something missing that could never be recovered.
"They took that too," he said quietly. "Along with everything else."
The silence that followed was heavy.
Stone pulled back. Not far—just enough to look at me. His face was tear-streaked, eyes red, but something in his expression had shifted. Settled.
"They did this to me."
"On purpose. Deliberately." His jaw tightened. "I wasn't an accident. I wasn't collateral damage. Someone put me on that table and broke me apart because they wanted to."
I thought about the files Neal had found.
Stone wasn't alone.
None of them were accidents.
"The others," I said slowly. "Gray. Cal. Do you think—"
"We're going to find out," I said.
"How?"
"I don't know yet. But there are records somewhere. Files. Evidence." I squeezed his hand. "Someone knows the truth. And we're going to make them tell us."
He studied my face. Looking for doubt, maybe. Or fear.
He didn't find either.
"You believe me," he said quietly. "About all of it."
"Of course I believe you."
"Even the parts that don't make sense? The pieces I can't explain?"
"Especially those." I held his gaze. "You're not crazy, Stone. You're not imagining things. What happened to you was real. And it was wrong. And whoever did it is going to answer for it."
Something flickered in his eyes. Not hope—not yet. But the first faint possibility of it.
"I don't know if I can do this," he admitted. "Remember more. Face what they did. The memories are—" He shuddered. "Every time I let them in, I feel like I'm back there. Strapped to that table. Losing myself all over again."
