CHAPTER IX
1708 Words
Iris left Sebastian Hale's estate with one promise echoing in her mind.
"If you ever come near my father again... I'll stop you myself."
The drive back from the estate had been almost unbearable.
Silas never asked what Iris was thinking.
He didn't need to.
He had seen the look on Amara's face as she stood beside Sebastian Hale—not as a hostage, not as someone being manipulated against her will, but as a daughter protecting the man she believed had saved her life.
Iris had spent years searching for Amara.
She had imagined countless reunions.
None of them had ended with her own sister pointing a gun at her.
Amara had not spoken those words with anger.
She had spoken them with conviction.
That frightened Iris more than hatred ever could.
Hatred could fade.
Conviction could last a lifetime.
Over the following weeks, Iris found herself unable to stop replaying every second inside Victor's library.
The hesitation when Amara picked up the childhood photograph.
The brief confusion after reading their mother's handwritten message.
The way Sebadtian had interrupted the moment before either of them could say another word.
Iris became convinced of one thing.
Somewhere beneath fifteen years of carefully planted lies, Amara's real memories still existed.
Sebastian knew it too.
That was why he never allowed them more than a few moments together.
Three weeks later, Iris finally found another lead.
One that had nothing to do with Amara.
A former intelligence broker had agreed to sell information about the traitor who had hijacked her father's escape plan.
According to Silas's sources, the broker had once worked as a courier between senior members of the hidden council before disappearing years earlier.
If anyone knew who had betrayed Iris's father from inside his closest circle, it was him.
The meeting was arranged inside an abandoned train depot just before sunrise.
Iris arrived first.
The station was silent except for the distant sound of rainwater dripping through the broken roof.
Rusted train cars stood frozen on forgotten tracks.
Long shadows stretched between concrete pillars.
Silas watched from the roof while she waited below.
The broker never appeared.
Instead, Silas heard the faint click of a rifle safety.
Years of training under Dante made her react before her mind fully understood the danger.
She moved an instant before the first bullet shattered the concrete pillar behind her.
Stone fragments exploded across the platform.
A second shot followed.
Precise.
Controlled.
Not meant as a warning.
Someone was trying to kill her.
Iris sprinted between rusted train cars, searching for the sniper's position.
She studied the angle of impact.
The spacing between shots.
The timing.
The shooter wasn't rushing.
Whoever stood above possessed remarkable discipline.
Then she saw a familiar silhouette standing on a steel walkway overlooking the depot.
Amara.
Iris lowered her pistol.
"Amara!"
Another shot answered her.
The bullet grazed Iris's shoulder, tearing through her jacket.
Pain spread instantly down her arm.
Iris ducked behind cover.
"What are you doing?" Silas shouted through the earpiece.
Iris stared toward the walkway.
"...It's her."
Silas's voice became tense.
"I have a clear shot."
Iris immediately pictured Amara standing beside Sebastian in the library.
She remembered pulling the childhood photograph from her jacket.
She remembered the hesitation in Amara's eyes.
"No."
"Iris—"
"I said no."
She switched off the radio.
Another bullet struck inches from her face.
Chunks of rusted metal scattered across the ground.
Amara wasn't hesitating.
She was trying to end the fight before it began.
Iris realized Sebastian had already made his next move.
If he couldn't convince Iris to stop searching for the truth...
He would force Amara to become the weapon that did.
Iris escaped through a maintenance tunnel moments before security forces surrounded the depot.
By the time police entered the station hours later, the sniper had vanished without leaving a trace.
The broker was found dead later that morning.
Another witness.
Another lost truth.
The pattern continued.
Every person who might identify the traitor disappeared before Iris could reach them.
Whoever had betrayed her father fifteen years earlier still controlled events from the shadows.
"She will kill you."
Dante's words carried no emotion.
Only certainty.
Iris sat silently while he stitched the wound on her shoulder inside his secluded cabin.
Rain struck the windows while the old assassin worked without speaking.
"I know."
"You had the chance."
"I know."
"You lowered your weapon."
Iris didn't answer.
Because Dante was right.
She had lowered it the moment she recognized Amara.
Dante tied the final knot and placed the needle on the table.
"If she shoots first next time..."
"...there may not be another chance."
Iris stared at the fresh bandage.
"She's my sister."
"So?"
Iris looked up.
"I won't become the person Sebastian wants me to be."
Dante sighed.
For a brief moment, his expression softened.
"You still think saving someone always means keeping them alive."
Iris frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"If Sebastian truly controls her mind..."
"...then one day you may have to choose between saving your sister..."
"...and saving the woman she has become."
Iris looked away.
She wasn't ready to face that question.
"Then learn to survive without pulling the trigger."
Sebastian Hale understood Iris better than anyone realized.
After their encounter inside the library, he no longer tried to hide Amara.
Instead, he used her exactly where Iris was weakest.
He knew she would never kill Amara.
So he began using Amara as both shield and weapon.
Every operation Iris planned ended the same way.
Just before reaching Sebastian...
Amara appeared.
Sometimes she sabotaged Iris's escape routes.
Sometimes she destroyed evidence before Iris could recover it.
Sometimes she simply waited.
Watching.
Ready.
Every encounter ended in violence neither of them wanted.
One rainy evening, Iris cornered a courier carrying encrypted files connected to Sebastian's network.
The man surrendered almost immediately.
His fear was obvious.
"I'll tell you everything," he pleaded.
Iris had barely begun questioning him when a motorcycle roared into the alley.
Amara leaped from the moving bike before it stopped.
Her first strike wasn't aimed at Iris.
It cut the courier's restraints.
The man reached for a hidden pistol.
Iris instinctively shoved Amara aside as the courier fired wildly.
The bullet struck the wall where Amara's head had been.
Iris disarmed him with a single movement.
Silas, arriving seconds later, subdued the courier.
Amara pushed herself to her feet.
She looked at Iris with disbelief.
"You..."
Iris kept her weapon lowered.
"I wasn't going to let him kill you."
Amara's expression hardened again.
"Don't pretend you care."
She disappeared before Iris could answer.
Iris watched her leave.
For a split second, Amara had looked genuinely confused.
It was the same expression Iris had seen when she looked at their childhood photograph.
Sebastian's version of the past was beginning to crack.
The pattern continued.
Each meeting left another scar.
Iris intercepted an arms shipment.
Amara destroyed the evidence before investigators arrived.
Iris infiltrated one of Sebastian's safe houses.
Amara triggered the alarms.
Iris rescued an innocent family caught in the crossfire.
Amara believed Iris had taken them hostage.
Every lie Sebastian had planted widened the distance between them.
Months later, Iris found herself trapped inside an abandoned cathedral after a mission went wrong.
She and Silas had been pursuing another intermediary connected to the hidden council when Sebastian's men ambushed them.
The contact escaped.
Explosives hidden beneath the cathedral collapsed part of the roof.
Smoke filled the sanctuary.
Broken beams blocked every exit.
She could barely stand.
Footsteps echoed through the haze.
Amara emerged from the smoke, pistol raised.
For several long seconds...
Neither moved.
"You always escape," Amara said quietly.
"Not today."
Iris slowly lowered her own weapon.
"If this is how it ends..."
"...I'm not pointing a gun at my sister."
Amara frowned.
"I'm not your sister."
"You are."
"No."
"You just don't remember."
Amara's finger tightened on the trigger.
Iris closed her eyes.
She couldn't do it.
She couldn't raise her weapon.
Not against the little girl she had promised to protect.
A gunshot echoed through the cathedral.
Iris opened her eyes in confusion.
The bullet hadn't come from either of them.
It struck one of the burning support beams above.
Amara was staring at the ceiling.
A burning wooden beam crashed between them, forcing them apart.
The fire spread instantly.
The floor collapsed beneath Amara.
She cried out as she slipped toward the burning debris below.
Without thinking, Iris lunged forward.
She caught Amara's wrist just before she fell.
The flames climbed higher around them.
"You'll die," Amara shouted.
"Then help me."
Iris pulled with everything she had.
The burns spreading across her hands barely registered.
After several agonizing seconds, Amara climbed back onto solid ground.
The sisters collapsed, exhausted.
Neither spoke.
Sirens echoed outside.
The moment was gone.
Amara slowly stood.
She looked at the soot covering Iris's face.
At the burns on Iris's hands.
Those burns existed because Iris had chosen to save her instead of escaping.
For the first time...
Amara hesitated.
"Why?" she whispered.
Iris managed a tired smile.
"Because fifteen years ago..."
"...I promised Mom I'd always protect you."
Something flickered in Amara's eyes.
Not belief.
Not forgiveness.
A memory.
Small.
Fragile.
The image disappeared almost as quickly as it came, but Iris saw it.
Somewhere beneath everything Sebastian Hale had taught her...
Amara still remembered.
Before Iris could say another word, distant voices called Amara's name.
Sebastian's men.
Amara stepped backward.
She looked at Iris one last time before disappearing into the smoke.
Iris remained alone inside the ruined cathedral.
Silas found her minutes later.
"You let her go."
Iris nodded.
"And she let you live."
Iris looked toward the shattered doorway where
Amara had vanished.
She remembered the hesitation before Amara lowered her weapon.
She remembered the confusion after Iris saved her life.
"No."
Her voice was quiet.
"For the first time..."
"...she couldn't bring herself to finish the job."
It wasn't trust.
It wasn't reconciliation.
But after years of trying to kill one another, a single crack had appeared in the wall Sebastian Hale had spent fifteen years building.
Iris could only hope that one day, it would be enough to let the truth through.
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