Chapter 126: Maps, Anchors, and a Dangerous Lead
The war room smelled like burnt coffee and damp paper. No one had bothered to open the windows yet, and the overhead lights hummed like flies.
Ethan was already at the table when I walked in, three laptops open, cords trailing like vines. His glasses were tilted on his face, hair sticking up in uneven spikes. He hadn’t slept; that much was obvious.
“You’re alive,” he said without looking up. “Good. Sit. We’ve got problems.”
“That’s the first thing you say?” Elena stumbled in behind me, holding a mug the size of her head. “Not ‘Hey, how’s your trauma? Want a bagel?’ No? Straight to problems? Great bedside manner, genius.”
Ethan ignored her. He pointed at one of the screens. “Selene wasn’t bluffing. The tether tech? I traced it. It’s not just about keeping kids locked down. It’s part of a larger network.”
“Network?” Aidan’s voice was gravel as he entered, carrying Galen in his arms. Galen was still pale but breathing steadier, his head resting against Aidan’s shoulder like a child too tired to fight sleep.
Ethan spun the laptop around. On the screen was a crude map of the city with pulsing dots marked in red. “Anchors,” he said. “At least, that’s what the coding refers to. Points of resonance that keep the tethered stable.”
Rhea leaned over the table, her braid falling across the screen. “Anchors… the Harbinger’s notes talked about them. Places that stabilize power. If Selene is collecting them…”
“She could create a web,” Ethan finished. “One that spans the city. Maybe further.”
“Fantastic,” Elena muttered. She sat on the edge of the table, kicking her boots against the wood. “So she’s basically building Wi-Fi for evil. Great. Just what I wanted to wake up to.”
“Where are these anchors?” I asked.
Ethan zoomed in on the map. “One’s near the riverfront. Another… in the catacombs under St. Augustine’s. And this one—” He tapped a blinking dot near the northern edge of the map. “This one just lit up last night.”
“Because of the van,” Echo said, appearing in the doorway like she’d grown out of the shadows. Her voice was flat, but her eyes were sharp. “Every time she activates a tether, another anchor strengthens.”
“That means she’s ahead of us,” Aidan said. His jaw tightened. “We’re reacting while she’s building.”
“And if she finishes?” Rhea asked quietly.
Ethan’s fingers paused over the keyboard. “Then she controls every tethered body in the network. And we’re not talking dozens. We’re talking hundreds. Maybe thousands.”
The silence that followed was thick. Even Elena didn’t have a joke ready.
I crossed my arms, staring at the map. “So we cut her off. We find the anchors before she strengthens them. Destroy them if we have to.”
“Or take them,” Echo suggested. “Anchors don’t just stabilize. They amplify. If she can use them…”
“Then so can we,” I finished.
“Cool, cool, love this plan,” Elena said, waving her mug. “But question: how exactly does one ‘destroy’ an anchor? Is there like a switch? A giant glowing weak spot? Or do we just throw Ethan at it and hope it shorts out?”
“Funny,” Ethan muttered. “You think you’re hilarious, but one day I’ll actually save the world with a laptop and you’ll have to admit it.”
“Sure,” Elena grinned. “I’ll get you a cape.”
“Both of you, enough,” Aidan snapped, though there was no real anger in it. He adjusted Galen’s weight, careful not to wake him. “We need answers. Not banter.”
“Banter is how I cope,” Elena said, softer this time.
“Me too,” Ethan admitted reluctantly.
Rhea cleared her throat. “The journal might help. The Harbinger wrote about the first anchor being buried under a church, guarded by an order that no longer exists. If these are the same… we’ll need more than weapons. We’ll need ritual.”
The word made the room colder. Ritual meant blood, time, risk. Nothing clean.
“Okay,” I said finally. “Then we start with the one near the riverfront. It’s closest, and if Selene’s moving fast, it’s only a matter of time before she strengthens it. We go tonight.”
“Tonight?” Elena groaned. “Can we at least pretend we’re human and take a nap first?”
Aidan shook his head. “No. If she’s one step ahead, we don’t have time to rest.”
“Of course not,” Elena muttered. “Who needs sleep when you can have trauma?”
Despite the words, she was already reaching for her crossbow, checking the string. Echo slipped a new blade into her belt without a word. Rhea tucked the journal under her arm. And Ethan sighed, muttering something about needing more coffee before pulling up another map.
I turned to Aidan. His eyes were dark, but steady.
“You don’t have to come,” I whispered, nodding at Galen. “He needs you.”
“I can do both,” he said simply. “I always have.”
There wasn’t time to argue. The map pulsed again on the screen, and the weight of Selene’s shadow pressed closer, like she was already waiting for us at the river.
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But instead of rushing out, the group lingered. No one wanted to admit it, but we all felt the weight of going in unprepared.
“Let’s at least talk about what we’re walking into,” Rhea said, sliding the journal open on the table. She traced a line of text with her finger. “The Harbinger wrote that anchors aren’t just objects—they’re tied to places. To memory. To pain. If this one’s by the riverfront, it’s not random. It’s rooted in something that happened there.”
“Great,” Elena muttered. “So what, we’re fighting ghosts now too?”
“Not ghosts,” Echo corrected. “Echoes. Leftovers of power. They can be worse.”
That earned her a glare from Elena. “You really know how to comfort a girl, don’t you?”
Aidan leaned over the journal, brow furrowed. “So we’re not just looking for something physical. We’ll need to feel it. Recognize it.”
“Which is code for ‘Roxanne’s going to have to bleed for it,’ isn’t it?” Elena said.
The room went quiet.
She wasn’t wrong.
Ethan cleared his throat, breaking the silence. “If we’re doing this tonight, we need gear. I’ll prep the scanners, get a drone ready for aerial sweep. And maybe…” He hesitated. “Maybe we should split.”
Aidan turned his head sharply. “No.”
“Think about it,” Ethan pressed. “If Selene’s building anchors like a web, we can’t just chase one at a time. We’ll always be behind. If two of us go to the river and two scout the catacombs—”
“And get picked off in pieces,” Aidan cut in. “That’s what she wants.”
Elena raised her mug. “I hate to say it, but I’m with broody wolf on this one. Splitting up is literally rule number one in the ‘don’t survive the horror movie’ manual.”
“I don’t care about your movie manuals,” Ethan snapped. His voice cracked with exhaustion. “We can’t keep running blind.”
I placed a hand on his arm. “We won’t. But we’re stronger together. That’s the only reason we’ve survived this long.”
His shoulders slumped. He nodded, though the frustration lingered in his eyes.
Aidan shifted Galen in his arms, his voice quieter now. “We hit the riverfront. Hard. Fast. And if Selene shows up…” His gaze flicked to me, steady, unyielding. “We finish it.”
No one argued this time.
Elena broke the tension with a sigh. “Fine. But when this is over, I’m demanding a spa day. Like, full package. Facials, hot stones, massages—the works.”
“You hate people touching you,” Ethan pointed out.
“Yeah,” she said, smirking. “But I’d suffer for self-care.”
Despite myself, I laughed. The sound was short, fragile, but real. And in that moment, I realized just how much I needed it.
Because once night fell, there wouldn’t be laughter. Only the river. Only the anchor. Only Selene’s shadow waiting for us.