The sound of the closing door echoed through the archive.
Every head turned at once.
Adrian raised the flashlight, sweeping its beam across the endless rows of shelves.
Nothing moved.
Only dust drifted through the stale air.
Marcus’s voice still echoed in everyone’s minds from the call.
Someone had already begun erasing the Order’s records.
And now…
Something inside the archive had moved.
“Stay together,” Adrian said quietly.
No one argued.
Evelyn stepped beside Elena.
Victor remained a pace behind them, his eyes fixed on the darkness beyond the shelves.
For the first time since entering the hidden archive, he looked afraid.
Not for himself.
For what they were about to find.
Adrian followed the direction from which the sound had come.
The beam of his flashlight stopped on
