Forbidden Flame

Chapter 9: Veins of Fire

They buried the dead at sunrise.

Three of Nova’s resistance allies. Two chapel workers. And one little girl who had been playing violin in the back pews when the walls collapsed.

Ari stood at the edge of the graves, fingers clenched, still in her torn wedding dress under Kellan’s coat. The hem was soaked in blood that wasn’t hers.

The soil was wet. The sky, mercilessly clear.

Kellan watched her from a few steps behind. He hadn’t said much since the attack—not out of shock, but restraint. He was holding back a rage that had no name yet.

Rosa stood with them, arm in a sling. “We need to disappear again. Regroup. Paragon won’t stop until we’re wiped out.”

Nova stepped forward, holding a tablet. “We may not have to wait long. I cracked the frequency of that speaker system. The transmission originated from a ghost tower in Nevada. Decommissioned military base. No digital footprint.”

Ari's eyes sharpened. “Then that’s where we go.”

Jax frowned. “It’s a trap. They want us to come.”

Ari didn’t blink. “Good. I’m tired of running.”

—

Two Days Later – Nevada

They reached the outskirts of the base just after midnight—four figures moving like shadows across desert sand, covered in dust, heat, and intent.

The base looked dead. Faded fences. Cracked concrete. Towering silence.

Nova hacked the gates. Inside, it was a ghost town… until they reached the underground levels.

Steel corridors. Old tech wired into modern surveillance. Something had reactivated this place. Something recent.

They moved room to room.

Then Nova froze.

“Found something,” she whispered.

They stepped into a chamber filled with cryo-pods. Half were shattered. Others still glowed softly—holding bodies.

Human experiments.

Genetically altered soldiers.

Kellan backed away, bile rising in his throat. “Lucien never had access to this.”

Ari moved to one of the pods. “He wasn’t just part of the machine… he was a failed prototype.”

And then, the lights flickered.

Doors slammed shut.

A hidden screen in the center of the room powered on—and there he was.

Paragon.

Unmasked.

A man in his fifties. Eyes like glass. Clean-cut. Familiar cheekbones.

Too familiar.

Ari stepped closer, her breath catching.

“No,” she whispered.

Because the man on the screen…

Was her uncle.

Lucien’s younger brother.

Long thought dead.

Paragon smiled. “You always thought Lucien was the cancer. He was just the symptom.”

Rosa’s face turned ashen. “You… you died in Afghanistan—”

“No. I was reborn,” he said. “Project Lazarus made sure of that. They took me. Broke me. Rebuilt me. Lucien tried to hide me—because he knew I was the better version.”

Ari’s hands trembled. “Why attack us? Why now?”

“Because you have the last key,” Paragon said, eyes locked on her. “Your blood. Your mind. You're the final part of the design we never completed.”

Jax whispered, “She’s… part of the program?”

Kellan turned to Ari, confused. “What’s he talking about?”

Paragon nodded slowly. “Lucien infused his daughter with enhanced DNA strains. You were engineered, Ari. Designed to lead. To command. Your rebellion isn’t natural—it’s programmed.”

Ari staggered back.

Kellan caught her.

“No,” she said. “That’s a lie. I’m not a weapon.”

“Not yet,” Paragon said. “But I can make you one.”

The screen went black.

Then gas hissed from the vents.

“MOVE!” Kellan yelled.

They escaped barely in time, fighting their way out through swarming soldiers.

But the damage was done.

On the drive away, no one spoke.

Until Kellan whispered, “Is it true?”

Ari didn’t answer right away.

Then, quietly: “I don’t know.”

And that truth shook harder than any bullet.

Because now... the war wasn’t just against Paragon.

It was against whatever lived inside her.