No One Owns Me

Chapter 26 — The Man Who Knew Too Much

The words burn into my vision, over and over: DON’T TRUST DANIEL. HE’S THE REASON YOUR FATHER IS DEAD. I lock my phone, my jaw set hard.

“I’m still going.”

Duncan sighs sharply. “Casey—”

“I know what you’re going to say. I know the risk. But we can’t leave this hanging. Not now.”

“And you’re not walking into it alone,” Ward cuts in, stepping steady to my side.

Duncan looks from him to me, then finally nods, resigned. “Fine. But stick together. No splitting up. No heroes.”

We pile into the cars within minutes. The drive is thick with silence. Isabella sits pressed close beside me, her hand cold in mine.

“Do you believe them?” she whispers eventually. “The message?”

“I don’t know what to believe anymore.” I stare out at the dark trees rushing past. “But we need answers. And he’s the only one who has them.”

She squeezes my fingers. “Then I’m with you. Whatever happens.”

For the first time, having her beside me doesn’t feel like something I have to get used to. It feels like it was always meant to be this way.

We reach the cottage just after midnight. It hunkers deep in the trees, no lights, no smoke, no sign of life. Drake holds up a fist to halt us.

“Wait here while I check—”

“You said no one goes alone,” I remind him quietly.

He glares, then gives a sharp nod. “Fine. Stay close.”

We creep forward. The front door stands ajar, swaying slightly in the wind. That’s the first warning. The second is the dark, fresh stain seeping across the threshold.

“Blood,” I say, my voice tight. “It’s still wet.”

Duncan raises his weapon at once. “Daniel? It’s Duncan.”

No answer.

We step inside. Maps line every wall, photographs pinned in tangled webs, stacks of files covering every surface. And right in the centre of the table sits a heavy leather-bound book: the Crown register.

“Don’t touch it,” Duncan warns. “It’s bait.”

I lean in anyway. Scrawled across the cover in dark ink are words that make my skin prickle: CASEY KNOWS THE WAY.

A floorboard creaks overhead.

Drake signals the others to fan out. Duncan turns to me. “Stay behind me. Both of you.”

We move up the stairs slow and careful. The hallway is pitch black. Only one door stands open, spilling faint moonlight into the corridor.

Inside, a single chair sits in the middle of the room. Tied to it is Daniel.

His face is swollen, cuts crusted along his jaw, his shirt soaked through. But his eyes are clear when he sees us.

“Duncan.”

“Daniel.” Duncan lowers his gun just a fraction.

Daniel’s gaze shifts past him, fixing on me. “Casey. You’ve grown.”

“Who did this?” I ask.

“The Crown.” He shifts, wincing. “They came asking for you. For both of you. I wouldn’t talk.”

My throat tightens. “Tell me about my father. What really happened?”

He takes a slow, shaky breath. “I promised him I’d never tell you unless they found you first. That you’d be safer not knowing.”

“They found me,” I say. “Talk.”

“He didn’t die because he failed them,” Daniel says quietly. “He died because he learned what they’re really hunting. It isn’t a throne. It isn’t an heir.”

“Then what?”

“Control.” He looks straight at me. “Control over your bloodline.”

I shake my head. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“It will. Your mother didn’t hide you to keep you safe from the Crown.” He glances at Isabella, then back to me. “She hid the Crown from you.”

My heart stops. “What?”

“Your family didn’t serve the Crown.” His voice drops to a murmur. “You created the power they’ve spent centuries trying to steal.”

Isabella grips my hand so tight it hurts. “Us?”

“Both of you. You were never meant to inherit anything. You were meant to end it.”

A crash echoes from downstairs. The front door slams shut.

“WE HAVE COMPANY!” Drake roars.

Gunfire tears through the air. Dust showers from the ceiling.

Daniel looks at me, grim and sharp. “Your father didn’t die trying to destroy the Crown. He already destroyed the men who ran it. But they’re rebuilding. And this time… they know exactly what they need to finish the job.”

Ward’s hand closes around my arm. “We have to move. Now.”

“Can you walk?” I ask Daniel.

He nods. Duncan slices his bonds free, and we bolt for the stairs. Glass explodes inward as men storm the front.

“Back door!” Ward shouts.

We run, but Daniel calls after us: “Casey!”

I turn. He hurls something through the air. I catch it—cold, heavy metal, a small worn key.

“This is where the truth is kept!” he yells over the noise. “Where you grew up. The house on the hill!”

My breath catches. The place I’d left behind and never looked back at. The place where all of this began.

Duncan shoves me forward. “Go!”

We burst out into the trees, sprinting into the dark. I curl my fingers tight around the key.

For so long I’ve been chasing secrets across empty warehouses and hidden roads. But the answers weren’t locked away in some enemy stronghold. They were waiting for me, all this time, in the home I thought I’d lost forever.