Chapter 37: Thirty Seven

“GHOSTS AND SHADOWS”

Astrid's POV

The light of morning filters through the blinds; I watch Eagan pace the small room. His face chiseled from rock, jaw so tightly clenched I’m afraid it will crack. The news about his sister—that she died eighteen years ago, that Mira was an imposter trained to assassinate him—has carved a hollow space in him. I can see it in his eyes.

“You need to rest,” I say to him.

"I've rested enough." He checks his watch. “The car is ten minutes away.”

I glance at Mira, who is still recovering from surgery. Bandages conceal the incision sites where Dr. Mercer extracted the tracking devices — and whatever strange implant was in her skull. She meets my eyes and smiles faintly.

"What will happen to her?" I ask quietly.

Eagan's expression hardens. “That’s no longer our concern.”

"Eagan—"

“She has been lying to me for months, Astrid. “Our whole relationship was fake.”

“Not by choice,” I say to him. "They controlled her."

His phone buzzes. He looks into the message, then nods to himself. “Liam’s men have made the way clear. We leave now."

I approach Mira's bedside. But, still, I can’t help but feel sorry. As much a victim as anyone else.

“I don’t expect forgiveness,” she adds, before I can say a word. “But I want you to know I’ll go away. I will not be another problem for you to solve.”

"Where will you go?" I ask.

“Somewhere nobody can find me.” She thrusts something into my palm — a small flash drive. “This has all of the hallmarks I understand of their operation. Names, locations, protocols. It might help keep you safe."

Eagan appears beside me. "Time to go."

“Hang on a sec,” I say to him, looking back at Mira. “You don’t need to leave this world by yourself. We could help—"

"No," she interrupts. “I am a danger to you both being here. Besides..." She glances at Eagan. "Some wounds never heal. Your family deserves a clean break from the past.”

Eagan doesn’t respond, just looks at her with cold, calculating eyes.

“I've arranged transportation,” Mira says, carrying on. “And I have means that they don’t know of.” I'll be fine."

“They’ll hunt you,” Eagan finally says.

"Let them. I am no longer anyone’s puppet.” She looks directly at him. “For whatever it’s worth, I wish she’d lived. Your real sister. I feel like I would have liked her.”

A flicker crosses Eagan’s face — pain, perhaps, or a specter of the grief he has borne for eighteen years.

“Bye-bye, Mira,” I whisper.

"Goodbye, Astrid. Take care of him. And that baby." She glances at Eagan one last time. "Raven's Point. Remember that name. It's where everything began."

Eagan nods curtly, then takes my arm and ushers me out of the room. We don't look back.

Outside, Liam waits with two black SUVs, their engines running.

"Everything secure?" Eagan asks.

"Perimeter clear. Safe house prepped." Liam hands him a tablet. “This just in from our source at the Brotherhood. They're mobilizing."

I hold the flash drive tight in my hand. “I’ve got something I can show you. Information from Mira."

Eagan examines it. “We’ll go over it at the safe house.

As we get into the car, I look over my shoulder at the clinic.

"Will she be okay?"

“She survived eighteen years of their conditioning,” Eagan says. "She's resilient."

The SUVs drive away, joining the morning traffic. And I watch the city pass by, thinking if this will ever end — this sprints, this daily terror. My hand wanders to my tummy, to our child inside.

"What happens now?" I ask.

The eyes of Eagan are on the road. “Now we discover the body of my sister.”

"Raven's Point?"

"Yes. That’s where they buried her, if Mira was telling the truth.”

"And the ledger? The one your father left?"

His expression darkens. "Hidden. Safe. And I’ve held onto it for all these years without really knowing why.”

To avoid any potential tails, the SUVs navigate through traffic, taking a roundabout route.

“Tell me about your real sister,” I say gently. "The real Elara."

For a second I wonder if he’ll refuse. Then, his voice low:

"She was fierce. Stubborn. Too smart for her own good." A specter of a smile crosses his lips. “She punched a boy twice her size for pulling her hair. Knocked out his tooth."

“She seems like someone I would have liked.

"You would have. She would have loved you." He takes my hand. “She always said she wanted a sister.”

His phone rings, cutting the moment short. It's Liam.

“We’ve got company,” Liam’s voice crackles over the speaker. “Black sedan, three cars back.”

Eagan instantly changes his posture. "Shake them. As in “Meet at the secondary location.”

Our driver accelerates, making a hard turn onto a side street.

“Get low,” Eagan says, shoving me down in the seat as he pulls his gun.

The SUV swerves hard, tires screeching. I hear the sound of gunfire, glass breaking. My heart is a drum in my chest as I curl, protectively, around my belly.

"Are you hit?" Eagan insists, his body covering mine.

"No, I'm okay."

More gunfire. Our driver curses and makes another hard turn. There’s a crunch of metal when we scrape another vehicle.

“Take a shortcut through the warehouse district,” Eagan tells her. "Lose them in the maze."

The SUV rumbles forward, metal growling. Out through the rear window, I catch sight of our pursuers — two vehicles now, closing the gap.

“The flash drive,” I say, a little panicked. "Mira said there are names—"

"Later." Eagan checks his ammunition. “We are, at this very moment, in a mode of survival.”

We slam through a chain-link fence and into an abandoned industrial yard in our SUV. The driver switches off the lights and, in memory, maneuvers through a maze of derelict buildings.

"Did we lose them?" I whisper.

"For now."

The SUV slows, gliding soundlessly between massive concrete structures. Eagan’s phone buzzes with a text message.

"Liam's clear," he reports. “All good, heading to the meeting point.”

I exhale slowly. "So we're safe?"

"Safe enough to regroup." In the dark, his hand searches for mine. “Nothing is going to happen to you, or our baby, Astrid. I promise you that."

"I know." I squeeze his fingers. "What about Raven's Point? Your sister?"

"One thing at a time. First, we find a safe place to go. Then we cross-check Mira’s data.”

The SUV exits the warehouse compound and turns onto a busy thoroughfare. Normal traffic, normal life — but everything’s different, nothing seems normal now.

“When this is over,” I say softly, “I want to go to somewhere quiet. Just us. Just our family."

Eagan traces patterns on my hand with his thumb. I’ve been reflecting upon Montana. Wide open spaces. Mountains. No one for miles."

"It sounds perfect."

"It will be." His eyes connect with mine, burning with resolve. “I’ll give you that life, Astrid. I promise."

The SUV goes on its way and we fall silent. I think of Mira, wonder if she’s been taken already. In spite of it all, I hope she finds peace.

“Do you think that they planned it all?” I ask. "From the beginning? The auction and me winding up with you?”

Eagan considers this. "No. That was chance. A coming together of disparate schemes.”

"Then us meeting was real. "One true thing in all this lies.”

His arm tightens around me. "The truest."

As we reach the safe house — an unremarkable apartment building in the eastern district of the city — I have a strange sense of clarity. Plots and counterplots, lies and manipulations — none of that matters in the face of the fact of us. Eagan and me. Our child.

“We’re going to win this,” I tell him as we get out of the vehicle.

He stares at me, surprise easing his features. "What makes you so certain?"

“Because they’ve grown up for eighteen years in shadows and lies.” I place my palm on his chest, feel his heart thrum strong and steady. “But we have something to fight for.”

For the first time since discovering his sister’s truth, Eagan smiles. "Yes," he agrees. "We do."

We enter the building, ghosts and shadows behind us — for now.