THE MAN BEHIND THE SHADOW
1233 Words
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The room fell utterly silent.
Emberly blinked at Silas, trying to process the name that had just left his mouth. Liam. The same Liam who’d vanished without a trace. The same Liam who left her life shattered the night her mother disappeared. The same Liam who had once promised he’d never walk away from her.
Her voice cracked. “Liam? You’re sure?”
Silas didn’t look away from the screen. “The tracker doesn’t lie.”
Emberly moved closer, staring at the blinking red dot. Two heat signatures were merged—one larger, one smaller—moving in a straight line toward the warehouse where she and Silas were hiding.
Her pulse throbbed in her throat.
“He shouldn’t be with Aiden,” she whispered. “He doesn’t trust anyone in law enforcement. He barely trusted me.”
Silas finally turned to her. “Which means something has changed.”
Images of Liam flooded her mind—his voice, his half-smile, the way he used to stand half a step behind her like he was guarding her from the whole world. His sudden disappearance. The aching silence he left behind.
“Why would he come back now?” Emberly murmured.
Silas crossed his arms. “Because he wants the same thing Aiden does.”
Emberly’s stomach twisted. “The fragment.”
“And you,” Silas added.
She flinched, taking a step back. “They’re not working together. Liam would never side with Aiden.”
Silas gave her a look that was almost pity. “You still see people the way you want to. Not the way they are.”
“No,” Emberly snapped, anger flaring. “I know Liam. He wouldn’t hurt me.”
“You knew Aiden, too,” Silas said calmly.
That hit harder than she expected.
Her hands trembled. “Liam disappeared to protect me.”
Silas raised a brow. “Is that what he told you? Or what you told yourself so it wouldn’t break you?”
Emberly opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Silas stepped toward her, lowering his voice. “Emberly, people don’t disappear out of love. They disappear out of fear.”
She swallowed hard. “Fear of what?”
Silas held her gaze. “You.”
Her breath caught. “That’s not—”
“Your ability was dormant back then,” he cut in. “But traces existed. Anyone close to you could sense something was different. People feel that kind of power subconsciously. Liam felt it stronger than anyone.”
“That doesn’t mean he feared me,” Emberly insisted.
Silas’s expression softened in a way that felt dangerous. “You don’t have to defend him. You don’t have to defend any of them.”
Her chest tightened painfully. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” Silas said slowly, “you’re allowed to be angry.”
Emberly exhaled shakily, her nails digging into her palms. “I don’t want to be angry.”
“Liar,” Silas murmured.
Her head snapped up.
He stepped closer—too close—and his voice lowered to a whisper.
“You’ve been angry for seventeen years. At your mother. At the people watching you. At yourself. At every person who walked away. Even at me.”
Emberly backed up until her spine hit the table. “You don’t know anything about me.”
Silas’s eyes darkened. “I know enough to see the storm you’re trying to bury.”
The air grew thick. Heated. Dangerous.
Emberly’s heart hammered. “Why do you care?”
Silas held her gaze for a long, charged moment.
Then he stepped back.
“Because if you lose control right now,” he said quietly, “Aiden and Liam will find more than the girl they remember.”
Emberly exhaled shakily. “So what do we do?”
Silas grabbed a large duffel from a shelf and tossed it onto the table. Inside were weapons, surveillance tech, and a sleek black device shaped like a headband.
“Training,” Silas said. “Fast.”
Emberly stared at the device. “What is that?”
“Neural stabilizer,” Silas said. “It’ll help suppress the fragment’s influence long enough for you to face them without… complications.”
Emberly frowned. “Complications meaning what?”
Silas met her eyes. “Meaning you accidentally read their thoughts.”
Her blood ran cold. “No. I can’t do that. I don’t want to.”
Silas sighed. “You don’t have a choice. The closer you get to someone emotionally, the easier your mind connects.”
She took a step back. “Emotionally?”
Silas looked at her, expression blank. “You’re attached to them. Both of them. Aiden. Liam.”
Her throat closed.
Silas continued, voice steady. “That’s why your mind reaches for them first. Familiar connections. Deep ones.”
“Stop,” Emberly whispered.
But he didn’t.
“You’re bonded to both,” he said. “That’s why this is dangerous. You’ll sense what they feel before they say it. And they’ll sense something different in you too.”
Emberly pressed her hands to her temples. “Silas—”
“Put the stabilizer on.”
Her eyes snapped open. “No.”
“Yes,” Silas said sharply. “Now.”
She shook her head. “I’m not going to walk into them with my head wired like some science experiment.”
Silas stepped closer. “Do you want to accidentally hear what Liam thinks of you now? Or what Aiden is hiding from you? Because once you hear it, you can’t unhear it.”
Emberly’s breath stuttered.
Silas held the device out. “This keeps you in control. Not them.”
She stared at it… then slowly took it from his hand.
The metal was cold against her palms.
Silas stepped behind her, lifting her hair away from her neck. Emberly froze, not expecting the gentle touch. He placed the stabilizer on her head, adjusting the clamps lightly.
When his fingers brushed her jawline, Emberly’s breath hitched.
Silas paused. Just for a second.
“You’re shaking,” he murmured.
She didn’t respond.
“Emberly,” he said softly, “look at me.”
She turned.
Silas’s eyes weren’t cold now. They weren’t sharp. They were… something else. Something she couldn’t name.
“You’re not alone,” he said quietly.
Her chest cracked open with something raw.
Before she could speak, a sharp beeping cut through the room.
Silas turned sharply toward the screen.
The blinking red dot had stopped moving.
Aiden and Liam were directly outside the building.
Silas’s jaw tightened. “They’re here.”
Emberly’s blood froze.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway. Slow. Deliberate. Too familiar.
Silas grabbed her wrist. “Stay behind me.”
But Emberly shook her head.
“No,” she whispered. “I need to see him.”
Silas stared at her, something conflicted breaking through his composure. For a moment, it seemed like he wanted to stop her.
But then—
He nodded.
The door creaked.
Emberly stepped forward.
Aiden appeared first—
His eyes locking onto hers with a mixture of relief… and devastation.
And behind him…
Liam stepped into the doorway.
Older. Colder. Sharper.
But still unmistakably him.
Emberly’s breath left her body.
Three words slipped from Liam’s mouth.
Soft.
Lethal.
Final.
“Hello, Emberly.”
- Writer
