Chapter 190 – Seraphina's Return
Location: Ember HQ – Lower East Wing, Tavara
Time slowed the moment Seraphina Kane stepped from the smoke. Her silver armor bore scars of countless battles, yet she moved with grace and fury, eyes fixed on the man who had once been her captor—Archer.
Victor stared at her in disbelief. "How... how are you alive?"
Seraphina didn't look at him—yet. Her entire focus was on Archer, who had taken a step back, for the first time looking truly unsure. "You buried me in a lie, Hector," she said. "Now watch me rise in truth."
Archer raised his weapon, but his hand trembled. "You were supposed to die in that fire."
"And you were supposed to be loyal to the Kane name," she growled. "Instead, you became the rot under its foundation."
Victor stepped beside her, heart pounding. "You're really my—"
She turned at last. Her gaze softened just slightly as she looked at her son. "You've grown into him… into the man I prayed you'd become, even when I thought I'd never see you again."
A dozen memories flashed through Victor's mind—his childhood nightmares, the unanswered questions, the hollow words in his father's letters.
Nora stepped closer, arm brushing his. "Victor… this changes everything."
"It explains everything," Lucian added quietly. "The silence. The erasure of your mother from family records. The false reports."
Seraphina's face hardened again. "I was betrayed, not just by Archer… but by your grandfather. He sold me out to secure his seat at the global table. I was locked in a Siberian black site, declared dead."
Archer regained his voice. "Because you were a threat to order! You were too curious, too independent. A woman who didn't bow."
"I didn't bow then," she said, stepping forward, "and I sure as hell won't bow now."
She lifted her arm—and with a sharp click, released a pulse grenade. It detonated in Archer's direction, short-circuiting the power suits of his frontline enforcers. They dropped like puppets cut from strings.
The Ember forces roared in unison, charging forward to reclaim the war room.
Archer backed away, bleeding from a head wound. "You think this ends with me?" he spat. "There are others. This entire empire is built on shadows you haven't seen."
Victor grabbed Archer by the collar before he could retreat. "Then we'll burn through every one of those shadows."
Reyes's voice crackled through the comms. "Commander! Lower vault secured. The child is safe."
Nora exhaled deeply, relief washing over her face. "Thank God."
Victor turned to Seraphina. "You said he betrayed you. Why come back now?"
"Because your war became mine," she said, gaze unwavering. "And because there's something you still need to know. About who you really are. About the heir they tried to erase."
Lucian narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
Seraphina looked between them. "There was another will. A true one. Hidden. Signed by your grandfather before they took his mind from him. Victor, you were named sole heir—not just of the Kane estate… but of something far greater."
A loud, blaring siren interrupted them.
"Code Crimson!" Zane barked from a terminal. "They've activated Contingency Omega. A failsafe that'll collapse this entire base in ten minutes."
Victor met Seraphina's eyes. "Tell me everything—on the move."
She nodded once. "Then let's finish what they started."
As the team raced through the corridors of Ember HQ, smoke and fire chasing at their heels, the past and future collided in the most unlikely of alliances—a son, his lost mother, and a woman destined to stand beside him through the storm.