Silence thickened the air, broken only by the distant groan of crumbling steel and the hiss of sparking wires.
Isabella stared at her mother, the words still echoing in her head.
> You're not my only daughter.
"No," she whispered. "That's a lie. He's trying to break us."
Cassia didn't look away from Voss. Her voice was tight, barely above a breath. "He's not lying."
Alexander stepped forward, his brows furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
Cassia looked at Isabella, pain swimming behind her strength. "Before I was captured… before I gave myself to the cause, I had another child. The King's men took her from me. I thought she was dead. But Voss kept her."
Voss smirked, blood dripping down his lip. "She was perfect. Loyal. Beautiful. Everything you wanted Isabella to be—but obedient."
A chill crept up Isabella's spine.
"You turned her into one of them," she accused.
"I gave her purpose," Voss replied. "And now, she wears the crown."
Elias gasped. "The Crowned Ghost… the one leading the remnant army in the North Territories—that's her?"
Cassia nodded slowly. "They called her 'Shade.' I didn't know who she was. Until now."
The ground shook violently. A new breach, closer.
Cassia's strength seemed to return all at once. "We leave. Now. We take the archive, we take the proof—and we prepare for what's coming."
Alexander secured the hard drives. "The world's about to meet its true heirs."
Isabella turned to Voss one last time. "You tried to destroy me by using family. You made a mistake."
He grinned. "Did I?"
She raised her hand, aimed the pulse pistol—and fired.
The blast hit just beside his head, missing by inches. "That was mercy. I won't miss again."
As alarms howled, they ran—Isabella, Cassia, Elias, and Alexander—back through smoke and ruin, carrying the truth with them.
And somewhere far away, in a frozen city beneath blood-red banners…
Shade, the Queen of the Broken Order, opened her eyes.
And smiled.