Elena could feel it the way you feel a storm coming—before it hits.
The way Liam looked at the lake like it might answer something. The way his touch had changed. Softer, almost hesitant. As if he was afraid she might break if he held on too tightly.
Or maybe he was afraid he might.
She tried to shake it as she stacked Miri's sketchbooks in the living room, folding blankets, rearranging things that didn't need rearranging. But the energy was off. Like the whole house had shifted half a degree, just enough to feel it in the floorboards.
She found the burner phone in the drawer after he left for a supply run.
She wasn't proud of opening it. She didn't need to see it again—the message. The photo. But she did anyway.
Cassian Voss.
Even in the blurry still, there was something in his posture that made her stomach twist. Controlled, sharp. Familiar in a way she didn't want it to be.
She scrolled further. Saw a log. Old messages—some encrypted. Some names she didn't recognize.
Some she did.
REIGN.
KELLER.
VOSS.
And one file simply marked SHADOW.
She stared at that word for too long.
She knew Liam loved her. She didn't doubt that. Not in the way he watched her move, or the way his body curled around hers at night as if shielding her from things even dreams couldn't reach.
But she also knew something else.
Liam Blackwell hadn't told her everything.
And if Cassian was reaching out now, it meant Liam's past wasn't buried—it was booby-trapped.
Miri came into the room, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "He's not coming back, is he?" she asked softly.
Elena blinked. "Of course he is."
"Are you sure?"
Elena swallowed. "No," she whispered. "But I'm going to find out."
Because if Liam thought she'd let the past pull them apart without a fight—he didn't know her at all.
Liam
He hadn't meant to leave without telling Elena.
But if she knew what he was planning, she'd follow him. And if she followed him, she might see the parts of him he'd spent the last six weeks trying to bury.
The safehouse wasn't far—an old radio tower hidden inside a collapsed logging site, one of Reign's dead-drop relay points. They hadn't used it in years, but it was still powered. Still coded in their old encryption.
He parked the truck out of view and slipped through the fence line.
Inside, the static greeted him first. Familiar. Comforting, in the way only ghosts could be.
He keyed in the code and waited.
Ten minutes passed.
Then the line buzzed, and her voice cut through the feed, sharp as ever.
"Blackwell. Either the world's ending or you finally missed me."
"Reign," he said. "I need intel. Quiet. Deep."
"You don't call for quiet. You call when you're cornered."
Liam's jaw flexed. "Cassian's alive."
Silence. Then static crackled like a breath being held.
"You sure?"
"He sent a message. Attached a surveillance photo. He's watching. And he's reaching."
"Shit." She paused. "I told Keller that bastard wasn't dead."
"Who's he working with?"
"No clue. But if he's active again, someone's funding him. Someone with access to Ridgepoint archives—and maybe deeper."
Liam leaned against the console. "He's not coming for just me."
"He never was." Reign's voice softened. "Elena's part of this now. That means he'll use her. Maybe even the kid."
Liam closed his eyes. "You have anything on new Black Reef spin-offs? Hires, ghost ops, foreign partners?"
"I've got whispers. Nothing solid. But I can start digging." She hesitated. "Liam… you want me to protect them?"
He opened his eyes. Cold. Focused.
"No," he said. "You just help me find him."
"Copy that. Watch your six."
The line went dead.
Liam stood in the silence for a long time, the static echoing behind his heartbeat.
He was in it now.
And if Cassian wanted a reckoning—he'd get one.
But Liam knew something Cassian didn't.
This time, Liam wasn't fighting for a flag or a program or a cause.
He was fighting for them.
Elena
Elena waited until the truck was gone, then counted to thirty before grabbing her jacket.
She wasn't angry. Not really. She'd known from the first moment she met him that Liam carried secrets like knives—sharp, dangerous, not easily handed over. But this one felt different. Personal. Loaded. And whatever it was, it was coming for all of them now.
She took the phone from the drawer again and opened the file marked SHADOW.
It required a code.
Her thumb hovered.
She tried Miri's name.
Nothing.
Then she typed in her own.
Still nothing.
She paused, took a breath, and tried Ronan.
The screen blinked. Opened.
Inside was a list of dead-drop coordinates—mostly rural locations, tagged with call signs and access windows.
She copied them onto paper, heart thudding.
One stood out. A location barely forty miles away, labeled "RELIC // ECHO-T" with a time window that ended in less than two hours.
She didn't know what Echo-T meant, but if Liam had access to it… then it was connected to him. And if he hadn't told her about it, that meant he still didn't trust her with all of his history.
That stung more than it should have.
You love someone long enough, she thought, you want all of them—even the parts that scare you.
She folded the paper, tucked it into her pocket, and glanced down the hall where Miri sat sketching in the sunroom.
"I'll be back soon," Elena said.
Miri didn't look up. "You're going after him, aren't you?"
Elena stilled.
Miri finally raised her eyes, quiet and knowing.
Elena nodded. "I just need to make sure we're still okay."
Miri went back to her drawing. "I think he's afraid you'll leave if he tells you everything."
Elena hesitated at the door.
"I'm more afraid he won't," she said.
Then she stepped out into the crisp air and started driving toward the place Liam thought she'd never find.