Chapter 113
Sebastian
The motel room reeked of cheap disinfectant and desperation. I stood in the bathroom doorway, staring at the fogged mirror where she'd left her message, and felt something close to admiration war with the fury coiling in my chest.
Antidote formula: Moonlight grass + Silver vine + third component I won't tell you. Want to live? Don't come find me. —L
The letters were already fading, condensation dripping down the glass. My little moon elf had a cruel streak I hadn't fully appreciated until now, a capacity for petty vengeance that somehow made her even more fascinating. She knew I was dying—knew the poison I'd injected into my own throat was eating through my cardiovascular system—and she'd still chosen to play games.
I picked up the nano-tracker from the sink's edge, its red light pulsing steady as a heartbeat I no longer possessed. She'd left it here deliberately, a middle finger disguised as mercy, and I couldn't decide whether to laugh or put my fist through the mirror.
"Sir?" Marcus hovered in the doorway, his usual composure cracking as he took in my condition. My lips had gone from purple to nearly black, and I could feel my heartbeat stuttering like a dying engine. "According to the components on the mirror, the antidote we synthesized can only maintain your cardiac function. Without the complete formula within twelve hours, your heart will fail."
"I'm aware of the timeline, Marcus." My voice came out rough, each word scraping like broken glass. I turned from the mirror, from her mocking message, and forced my mind back into cold clarity. "Track any boats or vehicles leaving the area in the next six hours."
Marcus pulled up the digital map, his fingers moving efficiently even as his eyes kept darting to my face. "The old harbor has a ship departing tonight. Genesis Foundation vessel, destination Black Reef Island."
The name hit like a physical blow. Black Reef Island—where my father had sent "Sofia Thornwood," where the Foundation kept their most valuable specimens caged beneath the earth. She was throwing herself directly into the lion's den.
"That little fool," I said, but there was no heat in it, only desperate admiration that made my chest ache. "She thinks she's a goddamn savior. Going to get herself killed trying to rescue people who might not even exist."
Marcus waited, knowing better than to interrupt. I could feel the seconds ticking away, each one bringing me closer to cardiac arrest, but my mind raced ahead to logistics. Black Reef was Genesis territory, heavily guarded and isolated from legal oversight. If I went through official channels, my father would know within minutes.
"Cancel everything for the next week," I said, making the decision with reckless certainty. "Get the Ghost Squad's fastest boat ready to deploy within the hour. We're going to Black Reef Island, and we're doing it quietly."
"Sir, if your father finds out—"
"Then make sure he doesn't." I cut him off with a look that had made grown men weep. "Set up the body double at the estate. I want footage showing me safely tucked in bed, recovering from my 'illness.' Victor can't know I've left until it's too late."
Marcus nodded, already pulling out his phone, but his expression remained troubled. "And your heart, sir? Even with the partial antidote, you're running on borrowed time."
"Prepare the highest concentration adrenaline injectors we have," I said, walking past him with increasingly unsteady steps. "I can make it another six hours. That's all I need."
It was a lie, and we both knew it. The poison Lirael had synthesized targeted alpha werewolf physiology specifically, exploited the very mutations that made us powerful and turned them against us. Every beat of my failing heart spread it further, and no amount of adrenaline could reverse the cellular damage.
But six hours would be enough to reach Black Reef. Six hours would be enough to find her, to drag her out of whatever hell she'd thrown herself into, to make her understand that she didn't get to sacrifice herself for strangers while I was still breathing.
Even if that breathing was becoming increasingly difficult.
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Lirael
The old harbor stank of rotting fish and industrial runoff. Rusted shipping containers were stacked like forgotten toys, and the whole area had the abandoned feel of a place the city had given up on years ago.
The ship at the dock looked like it should have been decommissioned decades ago—hull covered in rust and barnacles, superstructure listing slightly as if exhausted. But the Genesis Foundation's symbol was painted on the bow, that inverted black lily that had haunted my nightmares for three years.
Elwin and I joined the ragged line shuffling toward the gangplank, faces smeared with dirt and coal dust, hair deliberately matted. I'd shut down my holographic disguise, relying on primitive makeup—a massive fake bruise across my right cheek, cheap foundation caked over the silver mole, enough grime to look like I'd been living on the streets.
Elwin's hand was freshly bandaged, wrapping filthy and blood-stained like he was a day laborer who'd barely survived a workplace accident. He kept his head down, playing the broken man with disturbing ease.
Two guards in black uniforms prowled the line, Genesis Foundation badges gleaming on their chests. They carried electric batons they used liberally, jabbing anyone who moved too slowly.
"Keep your mouths shut and your heads down!" one barked, slamming his baton against a container. "Once you're on board, no talking, no moving. Anyone causes trouble gets thrown overboard."
A woman in the crowd let out a small sob, and immediately a guard was on her, jamming his baton into her ribs hard enough to make her scream. She collapsed, and the line shuffled forward around her like water flowing past a stone.
"Are we really getting on this ship?" Elwin whispered. "Maybe Sofia isn't even on that island. Maybe we should—"
"We're not just doing this for Sofia," I cut him off quietly. "Damian's intel said the Foundation keeps dozens of rare creatures imprisoned there. If there are others of my kind being held, if there are lunar elves who need rescue..." I paused. "I have to see for myself."
Elwin was silent, then nodded slowly, jaw set with determination. "Okay. Then I'm coming with you. Even if we don't find Sofia, at least I can help you save your people."
I squeezed his uninjured hand briefly, grateful even as guilt twisted in my gut. "Remember—you're a desperate man who's lost everything, sold to the island for cheap labor. No matter what you see, don't fight back. Survival is all that matters."
The guard barely glanced at us as we shuffled past, just another two bodies to process. The gangplank creaked under our feet, and then we were crossing onto the ship, into the belly of the beast I'd spent three years trying to escape.
And somewhere behind us, though I didn't know it yet, Sebastian Blackwood was preparing to follow me into hell itself.