Chapter 80 Shadow's Deal
CHAPTER EIGHTY
Stefan’s POV~
I squatted in a Seryne safehouse, the stale atmosphere heavy with damp and regret, guilt a blade cleaving through my chest. Valenticia’s face — her piercing hazel eyes, her faith in me broken because of my cafe heart-to-heart with Natasha — haunted me. I’ve hurt her, I thought, feeling my heart like a raw wound. It was Gregor Galden’s doing, driving the deal with the threat to her life—“Spy on her, or she dies”—a bargain I despised but accepted to keep her alive. As the safehouse’s crumbling walls closed in and Seryne’s neon buzz filtered through the boarded windows, terror spiked as I hacked into the logs that tracked Natasha’s serum shipments on a burner laptop. “For you, Valenticia,” I muttered under my breath, sabotaging her lines, shipping crates to no man’s land, resolve dimming like a light with a short in it.
There, too, fear pulsed, casting Gregor’s spies a shadow I couldn’t shake. Their drones had been buzzing Seryne’s alleys last night, hunting me behind red eyes after I fed him lies —She’s at the pier, clueless. My fingers shook as I rerouted Natasha’s delivery, her rogue leak cascading into the black market, a chaos I could reveal to keep my loyalties clear. A memory of Valenticia’s trust sliced sharp—her grin in the rose garden, her lips velvety on mine, murmuring, We’re unstoppable. That I’d betrayed it; that my pact with Gregor was poison, but I would fight for her now. I messaged her on my burner, “I’ll show I’m worth it,” and my heart raced, but her silence was a sucker punch—she fucking hates me?
My laptop hummed, my hack piercing Natasha’s servers, fear a claw as I hacked around her firewalls. Seryne’s salt air through the wood, anchoring me, but Gregor’s warning—” Fail and she’s dead”—hung in place, his gray eyes icy in my mind. I had met him through a Lazareth bunker, silky voice, “Just give me her plans, Stefan.” I’d been afraid for Valenticia, choking in nodding, but I’d lied, given the bastard scraps to buy her time. This time, I was being hunted, my sabotage a beacon. I have to get to her, I thought, resolve friction against the dark.
The buzz of a drone locked me up, and then its whine spiked the safehouse’s silence. Terror welled up—They have me? I dimmed the laptop, my heart pounding, and looked out through a crack in the board. There was a glistening, empty alley, but the drone’s red eye was drifting nearer. I slapped on my jacket, shoved the burner phone into a pocket next to my gun, weighing down my waistband. Valenticia’s silence ate at—does she know it was not my choice? Her confrontation with Ravi on the pier, following Marcus’s tip, had rattled me — his lie, Stefan sold you out, a dagger I couldn’t unsheath. I will prove it false, I promised, fear beating in me.
I escaped through the safehouse’s back door into Seryne’s alleys, a crisscrossed maze of fish stalls and darkness. The drone died down, but fear remained— Gregor’s eyes and ears are everywhere. I hacked into a Galden server from a public terminal, my hood up, my heart racing. Rotating through files, evidence of Natasha’s rogue leak of her decoy shipments, buyer lists—who’s funding the black market? She’s gone rogue, I thought, resolving myself. I’d let Valenticia know all about this; it was my last line of trust. I clenched an image of her laughter— You’re my shield, Stefan —and let guilt be the knife— I let her down.
The terminal beeped. I had finished my hack, but a shadow shifted—a spy? Fear was a spike, and I ran, alleys turned, Seryne’s sea breeze stinging. Gregor’s offer had bolted me, his curse—Her blood’s on you—a waking dream that I would listen, would sacrifice to spare her. I acted like a coward, I told myself, but I sabotaged Natasha because it was my fight, my rebellion against Valenticia’s darkness. I ran into a fish market, its reek enveloping me, and looked at my burner — still nothing. Please, Val, I thought, raw in the heart, texting back, “I’m yours—please trust me”.
Another drone’s buzz returned closer, and I froze, fear a vise. They’re following me, I thought, ducking behind crates, my gun drawn. The market’s populous prevented them from seeing me, but terror thudded—can I outrun them? I hacked another server from a burner tablet, Natasha’s leaked data streaming, my fingers flying. A file jumped out at me—Gregor’s quota—and he was the name associated with Natasha’s funds. A traitor? I remember thinking with determination, burning and fear riding like a wave through me—they know I’m digging. The red eye of the drone swept, and I dived into an alley, heart racing.
Valenticia’s memory of the rose garden—her hand in mine, We’ll win—gave me strength, guilt a fire I’d scorch my way through. I will get to her, I swore, with Seryne’s shadows as my mantle. Distracted by my reflection, hiding between a selection of miniature learning tools, my tablet pinged, intercepted spy-mail: “Voss betrayed us—kill him”. He knew and fear spiked, Gregor’s anger a sentence of death—he knows! Can I reach her in time? Shaking with fear, I slipped into the night; the file named a Galden board member helping Natasha, a traitor who needed exposing. I swore to get to Valenticia, the board member's name, a question begging for answers.