“Say the name.”
The words left my mouth before I could stop them, sharp, steady, cutting through the thick silence. My pulse was uneven, not from fear alone, but from the weight of recognition pressing at the edge of my thoughts. The figure stood fully in the light now, and the truth hovered just out of reach, like something I had always known but never allowed myself to see.
Adrian’s grip tightened around my hand, not enough to hurt, but enough to anchor. His gaze didn’t leave the intruder. “You heard her,” he said quietly. “No more games.”
The figure smiled, slow, deliberate. “You’re closer than you think,” they said. “But names, names carry power. And once spoken, they change everything.”
My chest rose and fell, controlled, but not calm. A memory flickered, files, signatures, meeti
