"Alaric Thorne… a temporal anchor?" Scarlett breathed, the horror of it twisting her features. Her hand, which had been reaching for the ornate wooden box, now froze in mid-air. "The Guardians… they anticipated this. They created a failsafe."
Zayn clenched his fists, a fresh wave of rage, cold and absolute, washing over him. The Guardians weren't just arbiters of fate; they were master strategists, playing a game across millennia, anticipating every move, every attempt at defiance. Their supposed neutrality was a lie. They were actively protecting the Shadow Syndicate, or at least, using it as a tool to maintain their own twisted version of "stability." The implications were staggering, a cold, hard slap to his burgeoning sense of hope.
Leo, his face pale, slowly backed away from the con
