FAR GONE

Chapter 29

Seraphina’s voice cracked through the receiver, sharp and confused. “Kael, what do you mean? What are you even talking about right now?”

My jaw clenched so tight it ached. “Don’t play dumb with me,” I snapped, my tone low but edged with fire. “You know exactly what I mean. Answer me right now—the vehicle that attacked me, who gave the order? Was it from the President himself?”

Silence lingered on the line, but I didn’t let her breathe.

“And the document you signed with them,” I pressed, “what was the plan between the President and Delacroix? Was that the goal from the start? To use me as a pawn while you mingled with Delacroix behind my back?”

“I… I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Seraphina stammered, her voice rising with defensive urgency. “Kael, I swear—”

“Save it,” I cut her off coldly. “I’ll find you. And when I do, it won’t be funny. Be ready to explain why you had to go this far.”

Before she could respond, I ended the call.

Pain stabbed through my skull, sharp and relentless. I pressed my hand to my head, groaning softly, then forced myself to steady my breath before pulling it away. There was no time for weakness.

I pushed forward, step after step, until my house came into sight. And that’s when I saw her—Aria. She was outside, packing things into the trunk of her car.

My chest tightened. I strode up to her, halting just behind. “What are you doing?” I demanded.

She didn’t even flinch, just shot me a cold glance. “Can’t you read the room, Kael? I’m leaving here, of course.”

My throat went dry. “Leaving?”

“Yes.” Her voice was like broken glass. “Liam was the only thing binding us together. Now that he’s gone, I have no reason to stay. The lawyer will prepare the divorce papers. Sign them right away… or I swear, Kael, I’ll sue you in court.”

Her words pierced deeper than any blade. My anger exploded. “What on earth has gotten into your head? Why are you acting like this?”

She spun on me, her eyes wet but blazing. “Can’t you understand what’s happening right now? I’m divorcing you. That’s final.”

I reached out, desperate, my voice raw. “Aria, listen to me. I know things are hectic now, but just like before—just like how you always believed in me—do it again. Please. Trust me this time too. I promise, I’ll set everything right.”

Her lip quivered, but her words cut me down. “When, Kael? When will you? We’ve already lost our boy. And what did you do about it? Nothing. You couldn’t do anything. So let me be. I’ll find a way to bring my son back.”

I shook my head violently. “The path you’re trying to take is dangerous. The people you want to sit with… they’re the greatest devils that ever walked this earth. Please, Aria, just stay here. Let me sort this out—”

She shoved my hands away with a force that stung more than her slap ever could. “No, Kael. I will do everything in my power to get Liam out of that place. Even if it means wining and dining with the devils themselves.”

She slammed the bonnet shut, her movements brisk, final. Without another glance at me, she climbed into the car, the engine roaring to life. Then she drove away, leaving only the sound of tires grinding against gravel.

I stood there in the middle of the road, watching her tail lights fade into the night, my fists clenching helplessly at my sides.

And for the first time in a long time… I felt truly powerless.

I stood in the rain until my clothes were plastered to my skin and my thoughts had nowhere left to run. Watching Aria drive away had hollowed something out of me — but sulking wouldn’t help, not now. Questions piled up like stones; one wrong move and they’d crush me. I had to keep moving, slow and methodical.

I dug my phone out with numb fingers and dialed a number I hadn’t called in years. My thumb hovered, then pressed.

“Hello?” the voice on the other end sounded rough, threaded with surprise.

“It's been a while,” I said, my voice steady even though my chest felt raw. “I’ve no other option. We need to meet.”

There was a pause, then the answer came back, cautious and full of something like warmth: “Kael? …I can’t wait to see you.”

I let the line drop. That name — Eagle — was the one I’d given my team’s best marksman years ago, back when we still trusted one another. He’d been the man who’d taken the high positions and covered my back. The day everything went wrong, I’d been told Eagle had an “accident.” I never believed it. I’d always known someone had pulled strings.

The meet was in a shabby strip of the city that pretended to be a nightlife district: neon signs, cracked pavement, a bar where smoke hung like a second ceiling. From the outside it looked like any rundown tavern. Inside, though, the girl at the counter had a sharp, quick look — the look of someone who knew the regulars and their secrets.

“I’m looking for Eagle,” I said, trying to make my voice sound casual.

She blinked, then gave the smallest of smiles and led me through a narrow hall to a door at the back. “He’s in there. Say you’re with Kael,” she said like it mattered.

The room beyond was dim, lit by a single bare bulb. The smell of old liquor and metal lingered. When the door opened, a g*n c****d — an old reflex from too many nights on stakeouts. I froze for half a breath, then saw the grin that made the anger in my chest ease a fraction.

“Christ, you look like hell on that bed,” Eagle said, lowering the pistol. Relief and disgust warred behind his eyes. His hair was shorter now, his face marked with the kind of hard lines five years in the world left. He eased the g*n into a desk drawer and crossed the room.

We broke into something that wasn’t quite laughter and wasn’t quite crying — that rough, ugly relief of men who’d thought each other dead and now had the body in the room to prove otherwise. I hugged him, clinging to the one constant I’d trusted with my life.

“How are you doing?” I asked when the first wave of noise died.

“As you can see,” he said shortly, tapping his chest, “I’m managing.” He let the words hang like armor. Then, without the show, he asked the question I already knew the answer to: “Why now? What pulled you out into the rain?”

I told him everything I could — the party, the contract, Elias and Lucien and Milton’s smile, the car that hit me with a purpose, the President’s name whispered in Milton’s last sentence. I told him about Liam, about the tests, about Milton’s ‘research’ and the suggestion that the President himself had approved it. Each word burned a little, but I needed him to know.

Eagle listened without blinking. He took his time between sentences, chewing each revelation like it sank deeper.

“I never liked Milton,” he said finally, voice flat. “Never trusted the way he smiles at the city like it’s his patient. And Malik Radwan… that name’s cropped up in a few corners I’ve been watching. You didn’t imagine it — he’s here. He’s been trading whatever he can get for muscle and silence.”

I felt my throat close. “Can you find him?”

Eagle’s eyes hardened. “I can. More than that — I know where to look for the men who traffic and test on people. If there’s a place they hide the girls, or a lab where brains get chopped and sorted, I can sniff it out. And if Malik’s sitting on a cure—or an antidote, if that’s what you’re hoping—then I’ll find how he’s protecting it.”

Something like hope, raw and sudden, squeezed my chest. “And Milton?” I asked. “What about Milton’s lab?”

“He’s got people who bury things in plain sight,” Eagle said. “The lab’s clean on paper, but off the books? There’s a house—an old research site that’s been repurposed. If Milton’s doing what you say, that’s where he’d keep the work. I’ll get eyes on it.”

We paused then, two old soldiers sizing the distance between stubborn faith and bitter reality.

“You sure you want in on this?” Eagle asked, and there was no mockery in it; only the gravity of the thing he was offering.

I thought of Liam’s face, of Aria’s last words, of the President and Milton smiling like gods. I thought of every promise I’d made to men who no longer breathed.

“I don’t have a choice,” I said. “If I walk away now, everything’s lost. I need you, Eagle.”

He nodded once, hard. “Alright. We move slow. We start with Malik’s network—find who’s buying and who’s selling. Then Milton’s lab. We build proof, Kael. You don’t go charging in alone.”

I felt steadier for the first time since the rain. The ache in my head hadn’t vanished, but now there was a way forward. Eagle’s presence was a map in my hand, a promise that I wasn’t the only one who remembered how to fight.

We drank, quietly and for the first time in hours the cold in my chest eased just a little.