ASTRID

CHAPTER 7

We made it out.

It feels surreal.

Is that really it? A year spent living in the underground, only for everything to be gone in a single night.

I never even realized we had been hiding in the heart of a forest. Now, beneath the open sky, the world feels vast—too vast. The moon hangs above us, silver and unblinking, casting its glow over the tangled maze of towering trees. Shadows stretch between the trunks, shifting with the rustling leaves. The distant calls of nocturnal creatures echo through the air, a haunting reminder that we are no longer confined by walls—but we are not safe either.

My thoughts refuse to settle. The events of the past hour loop in my mind like a fever dream. Those people—those monsters—what were they? How could they wield such unnatural power? And why were they after us… or me?

But what lingers most is the memory of my father. The man who raised me with a cold, calculated distance, who never once showed a shred of warmth—until tonight. The look in his eyes, the desperation in his voice… Was it real? Is he still alive?

I swallow hard and turn to Kenny. He’s sitting on a fallen log, rifle balanced across his lap, his fingers curled tightly around the barrel. His face is drawn, exhaustion pulling at his features, but his eyes remain sharp, scanning the darkness.

"K-Kenny…" My voice comes out unsteady.

He looks up, his expression unreadable.

I take a shaky breath. "W-what were they? How did they have abilities like that?"

Kenny exhales, running a hand over his face. For a long moment, he says nothing.

Then, finally—he swallows and speak

"I don’t know, Astrid. Not completely." His voice is low, strained. "But what I do know is that they’re taking over. And with power like that, who the hell is going to stop them?" He lets out a bitter chuckle, shaking his head. "They rule the world now. They do whatever they want. And no one—no one—can stand in their way."

A shiver crawls down my spine. "Then why us? Why attack the underground? We were hidden. We weren’t a threat to them."

Kenny hesitates. His jaw clenches so tightly I hear his teeth grind.

"They weren’t after us, Astrid." He finally meets my eyes, his gaze dark, serious. "They were after you."

My breath catches in my throat.

"What?"

"The reason your father locked you away," Kenny says slowly, each word deliberate, "wasn’t just to keep you safe. It was to keep you hidden. Because they’ve been looking for you."

The forest seems to close in around me. The rustling leaves sound deafening, the wind against my skin suddenly ice cold.

"Why?" I whisper. My heart pounds against my ribs.

Kenny exhales sharply, running a hand through his hair. "I don’t know everything. Hell, I barely know anything. But what I do know—what I heard somewhere—is that you’re the only one left in this world who can stop them."

I shake my head violently. "That doesn’t make sense. I don’t have powers like they do! I don’t—I don’t even know who I really am!"

"Maybe you don’t," Kenny says. "But they do. That’s why they’re hunting you."

I feel like I can’t breathe. The weight of his words presses down on me, suffocating and crushing.

And then Kenny says something that sends my world spiraling.

"Especially now…" He pauses, hesitating. His next words come out barely above a whisper. "Especially now that we might have just killed the President’s only son."

I freeze.

The world around me stops.

"What?"

Kenny swallows hard. "The man with blonde hair and golden eyes." His voice is eerily calm, but his eyes betray his fear.

"Darth Siniston."

A sharp, electric terror shoots through me.

No.

No! No! No!

That name—it carries weight. A name spoken in hushed whispers. A name that should never be crossed.

The son of the man who controls the world.

I stumble back, my breath coming in short, panicked gasps. My hands shake. My stomach twists into a knot so tight it feels like I might be sick.

Kenny stands, stepping toward me, his face hard. "Astrid, listen to me."

My head is spinning. "No, this—this can’t be—"

"You need to understand," he cuts me off, his voice urgent. "They will come for you now. All of them. And they won’t stop until you’re dead."

The wind howls through the trees, the distant sounds of the forest now drowned out by the pounding of my own heartbeat.

We just killed the President’s son.

I suck in a shaky breath. My mind races, trying to grasp onto anything that makes sense. But everything is slipping through my fingers like sand.

“So what now?” I ask, my voice barely audible. “Where do we go?”

Kenny exhales sharply, shaking his head. “I don’t know.” He grips his rifle tighter, his knuckles going white. “The underground was all I had. It was the only place I knew.” He glances around the darkened forest. “Out here… I have no connections. No safe houses. No allies.”

I let out a hollow laugh, the sound bitter and broken. “So that’s it? We just wander the wilderness until the animals rip us apart?”

Kenny shoots me a sharp look. “Of course not—”

Kenny was not able to finish the sentence when a sudden, deafening roar tears through the sky.

I barely have time to react before the trees around us shudder violently, leaves ripping from branches, dust swirling into the air. A monstrous aircraft descends above the treetops, its sleek, obsidian-black surface glinting under the moonlight.

It’s unlike any plane I’ve ever seen—its edges are too sharp, its body smooth, moving with an unnatural silence despite the sheer force of its presence. Jagged blue lights pulse along its underbelly, scanning the ground below like predatory eyes. The engines hum, not with the usual mechanical roar, but with something deeper—something unnatural, something alive.

The air around us vibrates.

Kenny yanks me down behind the log, pressing a hand over my mouth. “Don’t. Move.”

I nod, heart hammering against my ribs.

We watch in frozen terror as the aircraft hovers for a long, agonizing moment. My pulse pounds in my ears, each second stretching into eternity.

Then, just as suddenly as it came, it tilts slightly—then shoots forward, disappearing over the horizon in the blink of an eye.

Silence.

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding, my body trembling from the sheer force of adrenaline.

Kenny doesn’t relax.

“That wasn’t a patrol,” he mutters. His voice is tight and controlled. “They were checking.”

My blood turns to ice. “Checking for what?”

Before he can answer, the ground beneath us shudders.

Then—

BOOM.

The explosion is blinding. A massive shockwave tears through the air, sending a violent gust of wind in all directions. The force knocks me backward, my body slamming against the forest floor as the ground beneath us trembles like an earthquake.

I scramble up, my ears ringing, my vision spinning.

I barely manage to stumble to my feet before I see it—

A towering pillar of fire erupting from the distance.

I stare in horror as a massive inferno swallows the ground where our underground refuge once stood. The explosion is so strong it illuminates the entire forest, the sky above it turning blood-red with smoke and embers.

“They—” My voice cracks. “They bombed it.”

Kenny doesn’t respond. He’s staring too, his face pale, his fists clenched so tightly his entire body is trembling.

Everything we knew— everyone still inside.

Gone.

A sharp, stinging pain pricks my eyes, and before I can stop it, a single tear slips down my cheek.

There’s nowhere left to run.

Nowhere left to hide.

And the worst part?

They’re not done yet.

They’re coming for me.