The House's Istanbul safehouse was an unremarkable building on the edge of Karaköy. To the untrained eye, it looked like a small café closed for the night. Inside, layers of security measures made it one of the safest facilities outside the main compound. Yet for Adrian, the director of the House, nothing felt safe anymore—not since Callen had brought him the footage.
The footage of her.
He had replayed it at least twenty times. Every movement, every strike, every turn of her head. It was Morgana. His fiancée. The woman who had died in his arms—or so he had believed.
Now she was walking through the door.
---
The Reunion
She entered the café without a sound, the bell above the door muted, her presence like a knife slicing through silence. Her black hair was tied back. Her eyes, though unfamiliar in their altered shape, burned with the same fire he remembered.
"Adrian," she said.
For a moment, he could only stare. "Morgana…?"
She cut him off. "Sable Quinn. That's my name now."
"You're alive," he whispered, stepping closer. "We thought—"
"I know what you thought," she said coldly. "But I'm not here to come back. I came for answers."
---
Beneath the Surface
Callen stayed by the door, watching silently as she and Adrian faced each other across the empty café. There was tension in the air, a current made of history and betrayal.
"They came for me tonight," she said, pulling a folded note from her coat pocket and tossing it onto the table between them. The Board moves next.
Adrian's expression hardened. "Then it's started. Emil was only the beginning."
Her eyes narrowed. "So you know who they are?"
"I know enough to fear them," he admitted. "The Board funded Emil's rebellion. They've been waiting for the House to weaken. You were supposed to be out of their reach."
"And yet, here they are. Hunting me."
---
The Truth About the Past
She leaned in, voice low and razor sharp. "Tell me what you did to me, Adrian. All of it."
He blinked, taken aback. "What are you talking about?"
"You think I don't remember the facility? The procedures after Noor's death? You made me a weapon. I didn't ask for that." Her hands were trembling now, but her voice was steady. "You rebuilt me after Emil's ambush—not just with scars. You experimented on me. Enhanced reflexes, neuro-implants. Every nightmare I've had since then started with you."
His shoulders sagged under the weight of her accusation. "Morgana, you were dying. We used an experimental protocol to save your life. It changed you, yes—but without it, you'd be gone."
"You should have let me die," she spat.
---
The Threat
She stood, pulling her coat around her shoulders. "This is what's going to happen. You will open every file on my past—my training, my experiments, every operation that involved my name. You will give me full access. If you don't, I'll burn the House to the ground myself. Do you understand me?"
Adrian's jaw tightened. "And then what? You disappear again?"
"I disappear on my own terms. I'll handle the Board. But I won't fight your war blind anymore."
Callen took a step forward. "Sable—Morgana—whatever you call yourself, you can't do this alone. They won't stop."
She glanced at him. "They've already started. And next time, I'll be ready."
---
Departure
She turned to leave, pausing at the doorway.
"You said once that the House makes ghosts," she said, her voice softer now. "Well, you made me. Remember that."
And then she was gone, leaving Adrian standing in the empty café, staring at the note.
The Board had awakened something far more dangerous than Emil: a ghost who no longer trusted the House.