Chapter 93 Blood Is The Leverage (Demilia’s POV)
Sometimes, your whole world shrinks down to a single point so tight you can barely breathe. For me, it was one sentence:
“They’ve targeted your parents.”
I couldn’t even inhale. All my careful planning, every move I’d mapped out was gone. Just pure fear, raw and animal.
“Where are they?” I snapped, already shrugging on my coat.
“Still at home,” Adrian shot back. “But surveillance spiked around their street about an hour ago.”
My heart hammered in my chest.
“They’re not just threatening us anymore,” I muttered. “They’re hunting.”
The drive dragged on forever. Every red light felt like an insult. The city’s noise grated on my nerves. Each second tasted like failure.
Ethan’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel, jaw so tight he could’ve cracked a tooth. “We’re not losing them,” he gritted out. “Not today.”
I pressed my hand over my stomach, trying to steady myself.
Let them be safe. Just let me get there in time.
We turned onto my parents’ street and dread squeezed my chest. Two unfamiliar cars parked too neatly near the house.
My pulse spiked.
“They’re here,” Ethan muttered.
“Don’t stop,” I said. “Act like everything’s normal.”
We got out fast, moving with purpose. The front door swung open before we reached it.
My mom stood there pale, but alert.
“Demilia?” she whispered. “What’s happening?”
I rushed to her and hugged her tight.
“They’re coming for you,” I breathed into her shoulder. “We have to go. Now.”
My dad stepped up, eyes stormy. “This is because of them, isn’t it?”
His look hit me like a punch. Guilt twisted in my gut.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “Don’t apologize for telling the truth. Only for lying.”
My eyes stung. Tears pressed behind them.
We moved fast. Just the essential documents, a few things, phones off. We left through the back. Somewhere nearby, a car door slammed.
“Go!” Ethan hissed.
We piled into the getaway car, just as one of those other cars started rolling toward us.
“They’re tracking,” Adrian’s voice crackled over the line. “Change route. Now.”
Ethan jerked the wheel and we shot down a side street. My heart threatened to crack my ribs.
“This is insane,” my mom whispered from the back. “Who are these people?”
“The ones who never wanted to lose control,” I said.
We made it to the safehouse right as the sun dipped. As soon as the doors locked, my knees gave out. I dropped into a chair, shaking.
“They crossed a line,” I rasped. “They swore family was off-limits.”
“They only said that because they figured you’d play along,” Riven’s voice came through the speaker. “You didn’t.”
My dad set his hand on my shoulder. “You’re not backing down, are you?”
I looked up at him.
“No,” I said. “Not now. Not ever.”
Still, the fear stuck around heavy, poisonous.
That night, I sat with my parents, just us.
“I never wanted this life to touch you,” I said.
My mom squeezed my hand. “You were chosen, Demilia. Not as a weapon, but as a gift.”
Tears slid down my face.
“They turned me into a project,” I whispered.
She shook her head. “No one turned you into anything. You became who you are.”
Peace didn’t last. The next morning, Adrian burst in, face tight.
“We found a new player,” he said. “Someone we missed. Someone inside our own perimeter.”
My chest locked up.
“A spy?” Ethan asked.
“Worse,” Adrian replied. “A collaborator.”
Riven jumped in. “A traitor?”
Adrian nodded. “Yes.”
My stomach twisted.
“Who?” I demanded.
He hesitated, then said, “It’s Marcus.”
The name hit me like a punch to the gut.
Marcus. The legal ally. The friend. The one who’d stood by us from the start.
“That’s not possible,” I whispered. “He’s always been loyal.”
“That’s what made him so valuable,” Adrian said.
We confronted Marcus that afternoon. He didn’t deny it. Didn’t apologize. Didn’t even look guilty.
“They promised protection,” he said, calm as ever. “Safety. Stability.”
“You sold us out,” Ethan snapped.
“I survived,” Marcus shot back.
Anger burned through me.
“You gave them our plans,” I said. “Our locations. Our vulnerabilities.”
He met my eyes. “Yes. And I’d do it again.”
That betrayal hurt worse than any threat.
“You helped them target my parents,” I choked out.
He didn’t flinch. “They needed leverage.”
I could barely see straight.
“For money?” I demanded.
“For control.” His stare didn’t waver. “For survival.”
When they led him away, all I felt was hollow.
“They were inside our circle,” I said, voice thin. “Watching. Reporting.”
“Then we adapt,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “We pull the circle in tight. We trust almost no one.”
Ethan nodded. “And we move. Fast.”
That night, I lay there, wide awake, listening to my parents breathing quietly down the hall. Something settled in my chest, a kind of cold certainty.
They’d crossed every line.
I broke every rule.
Turned blood into a bargaining chip.
I pressed my palm to my heart.
“You want a war?” I breathed into the dark. “Fine. You’ll have it.”
By morning, we’d already started.
No more playing defense.
No more waiting around.
We went on the attack.
Riven and I sat side by side and recorded our statement.
No anger. No theatrics. Just ice-cold calm.
“We have evidence,” Riven said, looking straight into the camera. “Coercion. Surveillance. Child tracking. Psychological conditioning. Targeted retaliation.”
“And we have names,” I said. “Institutions. People. The ones who built this.”
“We’re not here to negotiate with a system that runs on manipulation,” Riven told them.
“We’re here to take it apart,” I finished.
The fallout was instant.
Markets shook.
Politicians lost their nerve.
Executives ran for cover.
Investigations exploded overnight.
But the more we uncovered. The uglier it got.
That day, Adrian came to us with one last piece of news.
“They aren’t just trying to stop you,” he said, voice low.
“They’re trying to replace you.”
My stomach turned.
“Replace me? With who?”
He hesitated, just for a second.
“With a new subject,” he said finally. “Younger. Easier to mold.”
A cold chill ran through me.
“They’re starting over,” I whispered.
He nodded. “And this time… the subject’s a child.”
It felt like a blade twisting inside me.
“They’re not going to do to someone else what they did to me,” I said, and I meant every word.
Riven’s voice was almost a growl.
“Then we end the program,” they said. “All of it.”
As darkness settled outside, I knew what we had to do.
This was more than exposing the masterminds.
More than survival.
We had to reach that kid before they did before the cycle started again.
Because now, this wasn’t just about what happened to me.
This was about stopping it from happening to anyone else.
The next part of the story?
It would take us straight into enemy territory hunting down the child they’d chosen…
and discovering something about them that would turn my whole world upside down.