Chapter 86: Divided
We didn’t say a word on the walk back.
The fog followed us like a living thing, curling between trees, swallowing sound. Even Elena, who never knew how to keep her mouth shut, kept quiet this time. Her hand twitched on the hilt of her blade, but she didn’t speak.
When the estate’s gates finally came into view, it felt like surfacing after being dragged underwater. The air was no less heavy, but at least it was ours.
The moment we stepped into the war room, the arguments began.
Elena slammed her knife onto the table. “Absolutely not. Whatever that golden-eyed freak thinks, I’m not bowing down to her or letting Roxanne do it either. She’s just Gregory with better eyeliner.”
“That’s not what she is,” Echo said firmly. She was standing near the window, arms folded, her reflection staring back at her in the glass. “Gregory wanted control. She doesn’t need it. She’s older. Smarter. And if what she said is true, she’s tied to Roxanne whether we like it or not.”
Callum leaned forward, palms pressed flat on the table. His voice was low, the kind that carried weight even when it didn’t rise. “Tied to her or not, we don’t let someone like that set the terms. That’s how we lose. That’s how we’ve always lost.”
Rhea sat curled in one of the corner chairs, hugging her knees to her chest. She hadn’t spoken since Ravenna revealed her name, and when she finally did, her voice was soft but steady. “She wasn’t lying. About the Harbingers. The journal… it mentioned a sister sealed away. A first one. And if that’s her—then Roxanne really is the last.”
Everyone turned to look at me.
The silence pressed down like a storm cloud.
I gripped the edge of the table, steadying myself. “So what? She’s centuries old, tied to me somehow, and wants me to finish whatever nightmare she started. None of that changes what I decide to do.”
Aidan, who had been silent until now, finally spoke. “And what do you decide to do?”
I looked at him, and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t have an answer.
\---
Ethan broke the silence with a groan, shoving his laptop closed. “Okay, everyone pause. We’re treating this like some kind of board meeting, but let’s not forget—we don’t even know half of what she’s talking about. Seals? Harbingers? Ancient bloodlines? We’re drowning in missing context.”
“Then dig faster,” Elena snapped.
“I’m trying!” Ethan shot back, pointing at his laptop. “But these records are older than dirt. Half of them aren’t even digital. Do you know how hard it is to decrypt something when the original source was carved into a rock?”
“Maybe stop using a laptop and start using your brain,” Elena said sweetly.
“Maybe stop threatening the only guy who can stop you from getting blown up by a 200-year-old booby trap,” Ethan countered.
Elena narrowed her eyes. “Say that again.”
“Blown. Up,” Ethan repeated, with exaggerated clarity.
She snatched her knife off the table. “One day, tech boy—”
“Both of you, enough,” Aidan cut in, his voice sharp enough to slice the tension. He looked at me again. “Rox, this isn’t just about what she wants. It’s about what you’re willing to carry. Because if Ravenna is telling the truth, then you’ve inherited something bigger than Gregory’s games. Something older. And you have to decide whether you run from it or face it.”
“And if I face it?” I asked quietly.
“Then we stand with you,” Aidan said simply.
\---
Echo pushed off the wall. Her eyes flicked toward me, sharp and unreadable. “But understand something. If you take her offer—even for a second—you might lose more than you think. Power that old doesn’t share. It consumes. And we can’t afford to lose you.”
“She’s right,” Callum said. “I’ve seen men who thought they could handle shadows like hers. They all ended the same way—broken. Hollowed out.”
“And if I don’t take her offer?” I asked.
Rhea’s voice came again, soft but clear. “Then she’ll burn the world to ash.”
That shut us all up.
\---
Minutes stretched into hours. Plans were argued, discarded, argued again. Elena wanted to strike first, storm Ravenna’s camp before she could gather strength. Ethan thought that was suicide. Callum argued for retreat, to regroup with outside allies, but Echo pointed out that Ravenna had already found us once—she could do it again.
And through it all, Aidan stayed silent, watching me. Waiting.
Finally, when the voices had dulled and the fire in the hearth was burning low, I pushed away from the table.
“I need air,” I muttered.
No one stopped me.
\---
The night was colder than the day had been. The fog lingered, but the sky was clear enough to show the full moon hanging above us like an unblinking eye. I leaned against the stone railing of the balcony, trying to steady my thoughts.
I wasn’t just fighting Gregory anymore. Or the Hollow Creed. Or even the hybrids.
I was fighting history.
A shadow older than me.
Older than all of us.
“Running won’t make her disappear,” Aidan said quietly, stepping onto the balcony behind me.
I didn’t turn. “I’m not running. I’m just… trying to breathe.”
He moved beside me, his arm brushing mine. “You don’t have to choose tonight.”
“She made it sound like I do.”
“She wants you to feel cornered,” Aidan said. “That’s what people like her do. They make you believe the choice is theirs, when it’s always been yours.”
I glanced at him. His face was calm, steady, like a rock in the storm.
“What if the choice destroys everything?” I asked.
“Then we rebuild,” he said simply.
My throat tightened. “You make it sound easy.”
“It’s not,” he admitted. “But neither are you.”
And for the first time that day, I almost smiled.
\---
When I finally went back inside, the others were still waiting. No more arguments, no more plans—just waiting for me.
Rhea looked up from her journal. “What do we do now?”
I took a deep breath. “We prepare. Whatever Ravenna wants, she’s not going to wait forever. And when she comes again, we’ll be ready.”
Elena raised her eyebrows. “Define ready.”
I glanced at Ethan. “Every file, every log, every scrap of data—find out what she isn’t telling us. If she’s centuries old, there has to be a weakness.”
Ethan nodded quickly, already reopening his laptop.
I turned to Callum. “Reach out to your contacts. If there’s anyone left out there who still remembers the old stories, we need them.”
Callum gave a single sharp nod.
“Echo,” I said, looking at her. “You’ve felt this longer than any of us. If there’s anything else—anything you haven’t said—I need it.”
Her eyes met mine. “Then you’d better be ready to hear it.”
Finally, I looked at Aidan. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t need to.
He just gave me that look, the one that said he’d follow me into fire.
And maybe that’s exactly where we were headed.
\---
That night, as the estate settled into uneasy quiet, the words Ravenna had left behind echoed in my mind.
Finish what was buried.
And for the first time, I wondered if the war we were fighting wasn’t against her.
But against myself.