The storm had thinned to a drizzle by the time Sebastian realized he hadn't moved in nearly an hour.
He sat on the edge of the narrow cot, elbows on his knees, watching the slow rise and fall of Isabelle's chest beneath the blanket. The flickering lamp cast restless shadows across her face, and every so often, she twitched caught in a dream he couldn't see, but knew was laced with fear.
He had seen her terrified before that night in the mansion, the ambush on the highway but never like this.
This time, it wasn't her body that had been attacked. It was her trust.
He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek, his fingers trembling as they hovered above her skin.
He'd told himself it was to keep her safe. That bringing her here to a warehouse in the middle of nowhere was protection.
But it didn't feel like protection anymore. It felt like hiding. It felt like guilt.
He had promised himself long ago that love and truth couldn't coexist. That one always destroyed the other. But now, looking at her pale, wounded, his he wasn't so sure.
The lamp flickered once, twice. The rain tapped like faint footsteps on the tin roof.
And then, softly
"Sebastian?"
He froze.
Her voice was hoarse, fragile, but real.
He turned to see her eyes open, dazed but aware.
"Hey," he whispered, moving closer. "You're awake."
"Where?" she tried to sit up, but the motion drew a wince of pain. He caught her gently, easing her back against the pillow.
"You're safe," he said. "We're somewhere no one can find us."
Her brows furrowed. "Safe," she repeated, like she was tasting the word. "That's what you said before the attack."
His chest tightened. "That wasn't supposed to happen."
"Then what was supposed to happen?" she demanded, her voice still faint but edged with fire. "Because every time you say I'm safe, something worse follows."
He didn't answer. He couldn't.
She looked at him really looked and her pulse began to race. There was something different about him tonight.
The calm mask he always wore had cracks now. Beneath it, she saw exhaustion. Fear. Regret.
"Sebastian," she said quietly, "what are you not telling me?"
He sighed, dragging a hand through his hair. "You just woke up. You need to rest."
"I need the truth."
Her words hit him harder than she could have known.
He turned away, eyes fixed on the rain-beaten window. The silence stretched until the air itself seemed to strain under its weight.
Then she said something that made him flinch.
"I heard her voice."
He turned sharply. "What?"
"When I was out," she whispered. "I heard a woman. She said" Her brow furrowed as she searched her memory. "She said, 'He built his empire on ashes that were mine.'"
Sebastian's blood ran cold.
That phrase.
That voice.
He hadn't heard it in years and yet he could never forget it.
Isabelle's eyes narrowed as she saw the color drain from his face. "You know who she is, don't you?"
He swallowed hard. "It's not what you think."
"Then tell me what it is." Her tone was sharper now. "Because you're looking at me like I just said the name of a ghost."
His silence told her everything.
Outside Liam's Perspective
The rain had slowed to a steady mist, but the ground still gleamed slick beneath the security lights. Liam adjusted the earpiece in frustration; all he got was static.
The signal interference had started thirty minutes ago, and it wasn't random. Someone wanted them deaf.
He crouched near the rear loading dock, his flashlight cutting through the fog. The gravel showed indentations heavy tire tracks. Fresh.
"Sir?" one of the men behind him called quietly. "These weren't here before."
"I know," Liam said, following the trail. "She's been here."
The others exchanged wary looks, but followed as he traced the path around the back of the warehouse. The air smelled faintly of fuel and something metallic. When the beam of his light hit the edge of a drainage tunnel, he froze.
There tucked behind the concrete lip a humming generator, half-covered in mud.
He motioned for silence and crouched beside it. His gloved hand brushed the casing. Warm. Recently used.
"Power supply?" one man asked.
Liam shook his head slowly. "No. Look closer."
A bundle of thin wires ran from the generator into the earth too neat, too deliberate. He followed the path with his eyes until it disappeared under the warehouse foundation.
A bad feeling settled in his gut.
He lifted the small latch on the generator and found a weatherproof timer box beneath. The digital screen blinked steadily:
07:42.
He cursed under his breath. "It's not a generator. It's a trigger."
"Detonation?" the other guard breathed.
Liam's mind raced. "She wired it into the power grid. She's not trying to destroy the building she's trying to make him watch it burn."
He pulled out his radio. "Sebastian, do you read? We've got a situation"
Only static.
He tried again. Nothing.
"Shit." He turned to the men. "We need to cut those wires, carefully. She'll have built in a failsafe if we pull the wrong one, it'll detonate."
"Sir," one of the guards said nervously, "if this goes off, they won't make it out in time."
Liam's jaw tightened. "Then we buy them time. Move."
Back Inside – Convergence
The air inside had grown heavier, dense with the weight of words unsaid.
Isabelle sat upright now, trembling slightly. "You said she died because of you," she said quietly. "How?"
Sebastian hesitated. "Evelyn was someone I loved. Before all this. Before you."
The name hit her like a jolt. "Evelyn," she repeated, voice shaking. "That's her. The woman in the portrait."
He nodded once. "Daniel's sister."
Her breath caught. "Daniel's?"
"Yes." His tone was cold now, controlled only by habit. "Years ago, she found out her brother was involved in something dangerous. I tried to protect her, but he". His voice faltered. "He used her. To get to me. And she died because I didn't see it coming."
Isabelle stared at him. "And now she's back?"
"Not the way you think," he said darkly. "She's not after me anymore. She's after what I love."
Her heart thudded painfully. "Me."
He didn't answer. He didn't have to.
The thunder rolled outside, closer this time, as if the storm itself were listening.
"So I'm just another pawn between you and Daniel," she whispered.
"No," he said sharply. "You were the only thing that wasn't part of the game."
"Then tell me the rest," she said. "Tell me what she meant by ashes."
He took a step back, his chest rising and falling. For a moment, he looked like a man drowning in memory.
Then, just as he opened his mouth to speak.
The door burst open.
Liam stumbled in, soaked and breathless. "Sebastian! We need to go now!"
Sebastian turned, instincts snapping back to life. "What is it?"
"She wired the perimeter," Liam said. "There's a generator in the drainage tunnel timer's set, less than five minutes."
Isabelle's pulse spiked. "What, what do you mean wired?"
"Bombs," Liam said bluntly. "We have to move."
Before anyone could react, the lights flickered again. A soft hum began to fill the room, low at first, then rising.
A voice crackled through the overhead intercom distorted, feminine, achingly familiar.
"You always choose love over truth," it said.
Sebastian froze. Isabelle's hand flew to her mouth.
Evelyn.
"Let's see if love can survive fire twice."
The sound cut off. The hum deepened.
Sebastian grabbed Isabelle's hand. "Move!"
They bolted for the exit, Liam ahead of them. The floor vibrated as a rumble tore through the lower foundation.
Dust cascaded from the ceiling; lights shattered. The first explosion came from the east wall distant but close enough to knock Isabelle off her feet.
Sebastian caught her before she hit the ground, shielding her with his body as debris rained down.
Her ears rang. She could barely hear his voice, but she saw his lips move.
"Hold on to me."
The world blurred smoke, flame, the roar of collapsing steel.
Another explosion cracked through the air, this one closer, stronger.
He pulled her tighter, his heartbeat pounding against her back.
Through the chaos, she saw the reflection of fire in his eyes and for the first time, she understood what Evelyn had meant.
This wasn't just revenge. It was history repeating itself.
Then, everything went white.
Emotional Interlude – Before the Explosion)
Smoke was already creeping through the vents.
The first blast had shaken the ground hard enough to make the light bulbs burst, leaving the warehouse trembling in near darkness.
The only light came from the flames beginning to curl up through the eastern corridor orange and gold, beautiful and terrifying.
Sebastian's arm was locked tight around Isabelle's waist as he pulled her toward the back exit. Her breathing came in ragged gasps, the heat clawing at their skin.
Every instinct screamed at him to move faster but every step felt like dragging his past behind him.
"Sebastian!" she cried, coughing through the smoke. "You can't the ceiling"
"Keep your head down!" he shouted, pulling her closer.
They ducked under a collapsing beam. The air was thick with dust and ash.
She stumbled, knees buckling, and he caught her, gripping her chin gently, forcing her to look at him.
"Stay with me," he said. "Do you hear me, Isabelle? You don't close your eyes."
Her lips trembled. "You can't save me if you don't save yourself."
He shook his head, eyes burning. "Don't you dare say that."
Her voice was faint now. "Why do you always have to be the one bleeding for everyone else?"
He almost laughed a broken, hollow sound.
"Because I couldn't save her," he whispered, more to himself than to her. "I won't lose you too."
She looked up at him then through the chaos, through the fear and something in her expression softened.
Not pity.
Understanding.
"Sebastian," she whispered. "I'm not her."
The words hit him like a blow. His breath caught, his throat tight.
For a moment, the fire vanished, the world blurred, and all he saw was her face the one person who had forced him to remember what it meant to love and not just survive.
He cupped her face, thumb brushing away soot from her cheek. "No," he said hoarsely. "You're everything she wasn't brave enough to be."
The ceiling groaned again a long, echoing crack.
Liam's voice shouted somewhere in the smoke "We have to go! Now!"
Sebastian turned, eyes burning, but he didn't move yet.
He leaned in, his forehead pressing against Isabelle's.
"I promised you safety," he murmured. "But I can't give you that. All I can give you is me."
She smiled weakly. "Then that's enough."
The sound of the next explosion ripped through the air like thunder.
He lifted her into his arms and ran, heart pounding, every step a race against the past.
Behind them, the intercom crackled again Evelyn's distorted voice one last time, almost tender now:
"Love always burns the brightest right before it dies."
The words faded into static just as the second blast hit.
Sebastian threw himself over Isabelle, shielding her as fire consumed the room.