Episode 13: The Last Ally
983 Words
The morning after “The Burn,” the safe house was strangely quiet.
Too quiet.
Serah woke first. She sat up slowly, the sheets falling from her shoulders, revealing a pale patch of skin kissed by moonlight and firelight from the night before. Her body ached from the chaos, her heart still pounding from Kael’s words—his promises. But something had shifted in the air.
Kael wasn’t beside her.
She pulled on one of his hoodies, soft and warm, and padded barefoot to the main room.
He was there—by the window—phone pressed to his ear, tension humming through every line of his body. The air crackled around him like a storm about to break.
“Are you sure?” he said into the phone.
A pause.
“Then we don’t have much time.”
He ended the call, turned—and froze when he saw her.
Her hair was a mess, her eyes swollen from restless dreams, but to him she looked like everything he was still willing to bleed for.
“Kael… what is it now?”
He exhaled through his nose, walking toward her. “It’s Leo.”
“Leo?”
“My brother.”
Serah blinked. She had only heard the name in passing—Kael rarely spoke about him. The forgotten Vallez heir. The quiet one. The one who never wanted the throne, or the legacy, or the spotlight.
“He’s on our side.”
Her brows lifted. “Wait—your brother? You mean the brother you said disappeared after your family destroyed his engagement?”
Kael nodded. “He went off-grid. But now? He’s reaching out. He says we need to meet.”
Serah’s hand moved protectively over her belly. “You trust him?”
Kael hesitated. “He’s the last person I do. But he might also be the only one left who isn’t trying to ruin our lives.”
By nightfall, they were driving through a rainy countryside, led only by coordinates and instinct.
Kael had a gun tucked in his jacket, just in case.
“Why now?” Serah whispered in the dark interior. “Why would he help us now?”
“Because he knows what it’s like to lose someone because of them.”
The GPS went dead as they entered an abandoned vineyard on the outskirts of an old town.
Kael’s headlights landed on a crumbling stone cottage.
And out of the shadows stepped Leo Vallez.
He was taller than Kael, more rugged, eyes sharp like broken glass and past grief.
“I was wondering how long you’d take,” Leo said, voice dry.
Kael got out first. “I thought you were dead.”
Leo gave a crooked smile. “I was. Until I saw your face on a tabloid. And hers.” He looked toward Serah, who stood behind Kael, her presence guarded and wary.
“You dragged her into this hell?”
“No,” Kael said firmly. “We chose it.”
Leo studied her for a long beat. Then his eyes dropped to her belly.
His expression flickered. “How far along?”
“Four months,” Serah answered quietly.
Leo exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for years. “Then we have to move fast.”
“Why?” Kael asked.
Leo’s voice dropped. “Because Father’s preparing to erase you both. Legally. Financially. Maybe physically.”
Serah’s blood ran cold.
Leo continued, “He’s consolidating power. Cutting you out of the company. Freezing accounts. Tracking this place.”
Kael’s face turned to stone. “How do you know all this?”
“I still have friends in the dark corners of the empire,” Leo said. “And some of them still owe me.”
Serah stepped forward. “Why help us?”
Leo’s eyes darkened. “Because I couldn’t save the woman I loved. But maybe I can help you save yours.”
Back at the safe house, the walls felt thinner. Danger closer.
Leo paced like a general mapping out a war.
“You’ll need to disappear again. New identities. Offshore accounts. I have people.”
Serah clutched Kael’s hand. “Run again?”
“It’s not running,” Leo said. “It’s surviving.”
But Kael’s jaw was firm. “I’m done hiding.”
Leo narrowed his eyes. “Then be ready to fight dirtier than they ever taught us.”
Suddenly, a crash.
The front window shattered with a c***k of glass. A warning shot.
Kael ducked over Serah.
Leo rushed to the security panel. “They’ve found us.”
Sirens in the distance.
A second shot echoed—closer.
Kael helped Serah up. “Go! Now!”
They escaped through the back. Into the woods. Rain falling like bullets from the sky.
Serah was breathless, clutching her belly. But she kept running.
Kael and Leo moved like ghosts through the trees, clearing a path, protecting her.
After an hour of rain-soaked escape, they reached an old hunter’s cabin Leo had rigged as a backup.
Serah collapsed onto the makeshift bed. Kael sat beside her, soaked, shaking.
Leo sealed the door, checked the windows.
They were safe. For now.
Kael turned to Serah, pressing his forehead to hers. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” she whispered.
“For bringing you into this world.”
She cupped his face, pulling him in. “I don’t care. I’d choose this. I’d choose you. A thousand times over.”
He kissed her, slow and broken, fire meeting water.
Then Leo spoke from the doorway.
“I can get you out. But once you go—you can’t come back.”
Kael looked at Serah. Her eyes were wide, but steady. Brave.
“What do you say?” he asked her.
She laced her fingers through his. “Together.”
[To be continued in Chapter 14]
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