The fire took hold quickly.
Sera had set the charges herself — enough to destroy the equipment, the records, the underground level where Magnus's legacy had been kept alive like a parasite feeding on the bones of the dead. Not enough to collapse the whole structure. They needed the children alive. Needed the evidence intact. Needed the world to see what had been done in the dark, to understand that monsters were real and they wore human faces.
Now she stood at the compound's entrance, watching the flames climb toward the sky like hungry fingers reaching for the stars. The smoke was thick, black, rising in columns that blocked out the constellations — a pillar of destruction that would be visible for miles, a beacon announcing their actions to anyone watching. The heat pressed against her
