The helicopter's echo faded into the storm until nothing remained but the hiss of rain on stone and the shouts of soldiers sweeping the ridge.
Rhea pressed her back to the narrow rock wall, her heartbeat crashing in her ears.
Adrian was gone.
Taken.
Chained.
Dragged into the hands of a man who saw him as a weapon—and her as a key.
She trembled, but something else stirred beneath the fear.
A spark.
Small.
Fierce.
Growing.
She wiped her face with shaking hands.
Her tears may have fallen, but her will didn't.
"Adrian…" she whispered.
"You saved me. Now I'll save you."
A sharp crunch cut through the rain.
Bootsteps.
Close.
Too close.
Rhea dropped lower into the crevice, holding her breath as a beam of light swept inches from her face.
One soldier's voice echoed above her.
"She's somewhere on this ridge. The scrambler jammed the drone scans."
Another voice cursed.
"Lucien wants her alive. You heard him—ALIVE. If she falls off a cliff, we're all corpses."
The soldiers' footsteps split in different directions.
Rhea swallowed hard.
She had two choices:
Run blindly.
Or move smart.
Adrian would have chosen the second.
So would she.
Her fingers tightened around the scrambler.
Hide now. Run later. Think always.
She waited—counting the footsteps, their patterns, and their distance.
One minute.
Two.
Three.
When the closest footsteps faded, she pulled herself out from the crevice, careful not to dislodge stones.
But just as she stepped onto open ground—
CLICK.
Rhea froze.
Her foot had landed on metal.
Not a mine—
a motion sensor.
A red light blinked beneath the mud.
"No… no no no—"
She dove just as the sensor triggered a flare—
a burst of blazing red light shooting into the sky.
A soldier shouted from the ridge:
"There! South side slope!"
Gunfire erupted almost immediately.
Rhea sprinted.
Rain blinded her.
Her lungs burned.
But she ran as if the storm itself chased her.
Bullets sliced past her, hitting rock and sparking against stone.
"STOP! She's heading toward the ravine!"
A ravine?
Rhea didn't even know where she was going—
only that she had to survive.
Up ahead, she spotted a line of jagged rocks forming a natural descent.
Dangerous.
Steep.
Slippery.
Perfect.
She slid down the rocks, scraping her palms raw, mud streaking her hair and arms as she half-ran, half-fell.
Soldiers followed but struggled on the unstable terrain.
Rhea ducked between boulders, breath sharp and ragged, until she spotted something glinting faintly in a hollow beneath a rock shelf.
A metal grate.
No—
a drainage outlet.
A tunnel.
Small. Narrow.
She would barely fit.
But it led down the mountain.
Away from them.
Rhea crawled inside without hesitation.
The moment she slipped into the darkness, she heard soldiers arriving above.
"She went down here!"
A beam of light scanned the rocks.
"Find the entrance! She must be close!"
Rhea forced herself deeper into the cold, wet tunnel.
Mud smeared her clothes.
Sharp stones cut her knees.
But she didn't stop.
Not until the voices dimmed behind her.
Not until she saw faint moonlight ahead.
She crawled out onto the lower slope—
far from the soldiers' search grid.
And far, far from safety.
Her hands trembled as she pulled herself upright.
Her whole body ached.
Her throat burned.
Her knees bled.
But her mind—
Her mind was waking up.
Her fear was turning into something sharper.
Focus.
Purpose.
Resolve.
THE BASE
She moved quickly, following the river that ran along the mountain's edge.
Water would hide her tracks.
Adrian had taught her that.
She followed it for nearly an hour, the rain easing into a heavy mist.
When she reached a fallen log, she collapsed beside it, chest heaving.
Her reflection in the river caught her eye.
Mud.
Blood.
Eyes red from crying.
But beneath all that…
A fire she'd never seen in herself.
She pressed the scrambler to her chest, whispering into the night:
"Adrian, hold on… I'm coming."
As she stood, something flickered in the corner of her eye.
A flickering blue light beneath the fallen log.
She knelt.
A transmitter device.
Military-grade.
Recent.
It didn't belong to the soldiers chasing her.
It was too clean.
Too precise.
Too intentionally placed.
Someone had left it…
for her.
She hesitated, then pressed the button.
The screen lit up.
Coordinates.
A message.
Six words.
"If you want to save him—come."
Rhea's blood ran cold.
Another message flashed.
"I am not your enemy."
And then—
A name.
Soren.
Rhea staggered back.
"No… no, this is a trap…"
But the second thought hit her harder.
Or was it?
Soren had captured Adrian.
Soren had hunted them.
Soren worked for Lucien.
But Soren had also—
Her thoughts spiraled.
Why leave her a device?
Why give her coordinates?
Why speak directly to her and not Lucien?
Unless—
He was breaking orders.
Unless—
He had his own reason.
Unless—
He wanted her to come alone.
Rhea looked at the glowing screen, heart racing.
A choice.
Go to the man who betrayed Adrian…
Or keep running blindly.
Neither option was safe.
But one option led her closer to Adrian.
She tightened her grip on the device.
"Fine," she whispered, her voice steady for the first time.
"I'm coming."
Then she added, almost like a vow:
"But if you betray me again, Soren…
I'll destroy you myself."
Lightning cracked across the sky as Rhea stepped into the darkness, moving toward the coordinates that could lead her to salvation—
or a new hell.
But she no longer felt weak.
She no longer felt hunted.
She walked with a new fire.
A new purpose.
A new identity.
She was the girl who refused to break.