Authors POV
The laughter from the Truth or Dare game was still echoing in the rafters when the high-tension bubble finally burst. Dinner had been a blur of stolen glances between Kyle and Jane, and Keifer's hand never leaving the small of Jay's back.
The Watson Family , Fernadeze and Mariano family everyone was present their for a gathering and meet.Jay went to her room for air . Everyone was sitting and talking each other when:
Silence dropped like a guillotine. Serina, Keizer, and Jay's parents stood up instantly, their protective instincts flaring.
In the doorway stood four figures, breathing as if they'd run through a war zone. Liam, Aya, Zia, and Max. They were covered in grease and dust, their tactical gear partially visible under torn jackets.
"Where is she?!" Liam roared, his voice echoing off the vaulted ceilings.
Keizer Watson and Jay's father stood up instantly, their expressions hardening. "Who are you? How did you get past security?" Keizer demanded, his voice like cold steel.
The "Chaos Crew" and Section E froze. Only Mia and Ben bolted upright, their faces draining of color. They knew exactly who these people were.
"Liam? Aya? What the hell is happening?" Mia gasped, rushing toward them.
"We don't have time for a meet-and-greet!" Aya snapped, her hands shaking as she clutched a ruggedized tablet. "JAY! WE NEED JAY NOW!"
Jay's POV
Hearing the commotion from downstairs, I rounded the corner of the grand staircase. I saw
Liam. Aya. Zia..Max. My team.standing there.
They looked like they'd crawled out of a gutter in a war zone. Tactical vests visible under torn hoodies, faces smeared with grease and sweat. My parents and the Watsons were already on their feet, a wall of confused, defensive authority
My eyes were locked on Aya. She was clutching a ruggedized tablet, her knuckles white, her breath coming in jagged hitches. She looked at me, and in that single look, the "Queens of the Dancefloor" Jay died. The girl who had just spent the last hour flirting and playing games vanished, replaced by the cold, hollow iron of a commander.
"Liam," I said. My voice was a flat, dead thing. "Report."
"We intercepted a burst transmission," Liam rasped, stepping toward me. He didn't even glance at Keifer, who had moved behind me like a mountain of lethal intent. "It's a direct patch. Encrypted, high-priority. It's... it's for you, with name Jaybird"
My heart did a slow, agonizing roll. That name. Only one person called me that.
Liam slammed the tablet onto the foyer table. The screen flickered, the high-contrast glow cutting through the luxury of the room like a blade. When the image stabilized, my lungs seized.
It was Lucas.
He was leaning back in a steel chair, looking agonizingly casual. He looked into the camera, a slow, twisted smirk spreading across his face—the kind of look that made you feel like you needed to scrub your skin with lye.
"Jaybird," his voice rasped through the speakers, dripping with a sickening, oily familiarity. "Look at you. You've grown up. More beautiful... more hot.
A collective gasp shuddered through the room. Pecy and Aries stepped forward, their faces contorting in rage, but Keifer held out an arm, silencing them. The predator on the screen wasn't finished.
"You really thought you could play house, didn't you? Thought you could protect them all—your family, your precious little 'Chaos Crew,' even that billionaire fiancé of yours."
He chuckled, a dry, rattling sound that made my skin crawl. "You did a good job, Jay. Truly. But in all that clutter... did you really think I'd let you forget about him?"
The camera panned slowly. My vision blurred for a second, my brain screaming no, no, no before the image even settled.
There, sitting on a small wooden chair in the corner of a damp, weeping concrete room, was Aion.
He was only eight years old. My godfather's son. The boy I had protected since he was in diapers, the soul I loved like my own flesh and blood. He was clutching the tattered teddy bear I'd bought him for his birthday, his small knuckles white. His messy dark hair was matted with dust, and his eyes were wide with a terror that no child should ever know.
"Say hello to your sister, Aion," Lucas whispered off-camera.
Aion flinched, a small, violent shudder racking his tiny frame. He looked toward the lens, his lip trembling. "Sis?" he whispered, his voice cracking. "I want to go home. It's cold here. Please."
The screen went black.
A silence followed that was more violent than a physical blow. I felt Keifer's grip on my shoulders tighten, his fingers digging into my skin as if he were trying to hold my soul inside my body.
But I didn't cry. The tears were frozen in my chest, turning into jagged shards of ice. I looked at the black screen, then up at Liam.
"Trace the burst," I commanded. My voice didn't sound like mine anymore—it was sharp, cold, and lethal. "I want the coordinates of that concrete floor. I want the heat signature of every living thing within five miles of that feed."
"Who is Aion, Jay?" Angelo asked, stepping forward, his 'big brother' instincts misfiring in the face of my sudden transformation. "Explain what's happening! Who is that kid?"
I turned my head slowly, my eyes locking onto his. Angelo, a man who had never seen me as anything but his 'little sis,' actually took a step back. The sheer, predatory weight of my gaze silenced him.
"Aion is my bro, Kuya," I said, my voice smooth and dangerous. "He is my soul. And Lucas just tried to put a price tag on it."
I leaned over the mahogany table, my shadow stretching long and dark across the marble. Only Mia and Ben stood close, their faces pale, the only ones in the room who understood that the world had just ended.
Suddenly, the side door slammed open.two of my men marched in, dragging a man between them. He was disheveled, his face masked by a black hood until Liam ripped it off, revealing a jagged scar across his cheek.
"We caught him trying to slip through the back perimeter, Jay," Liam rasped, shoving the man to his knees on the polished marble. "He's the one. He was the primary on the Aion snatch."
The room went deathly still. My parents, the Watsons, and even my overprotective brothers stood frozen, their eyes wide with a mixture of confusion and growing horror. To them, this was a nightmare they didn't have the map for. They looked at me, waiting for the girl who is scared of "horror movie" to scream or hide.
Instead, I stepped forward. "Keir , Keigan go to your room please and put your headphones."
I turned to the man.My heels clicked against the floor with the precision of a metronome. My sunshine was gone; my eyes were twin voids of cold, calculating mercury.
"Where is he?" I asked. My voice was a whisper, but it carried the weight of a death sentence.
The man spat on the floor, a defiant, bloody grin stretching across his face. "I don't talk to little girls, . Lucas said you were soft. Said you were just a pretty distraction."
I didn't blink. I didn't even breathe. In one fluid, blurred motion, I grabbed a heavy glass carafe from the side table and brought it down across his kneecap. The sound of bone shattering echoed off the vaulted ceiling, followed by a scream that made Jane and Ella cover their ears.
"Jay!" my father yelled, his voice cracking with shock. "Stop! What are you doing?"
I didn't turn around. I didn't acknowledge him. I leaned down, my face inches from the kidnapper's, my hand tightening around his throat until his face turned a bruised purple.
"I am the only thing standing between you and a slow, agonizing exit from this world," I hissed, my voice a lethal vibrato. "The frequency of that video was 60Hz. That means you're on the local grid. Which warehouse? Tell me, or I will start removing your fingers one by one until you can't even hold a pen to sign your confession."
"Go... to hell," he wheezed.
I stood up and kicked his broken knee with the toe of my boot. He let out a strangled, gurgling cry, his head hitting the marble. I reached down, grabbed his hair, and slammed his face into the table edge.
"I don't have time for your ego," I said, my voice smooth and terrifyingly calm. "I have a cold eight-year-old waiting for me. Last chance. Where is Aion?"
The man looked up at me, his eyes finally filling with the realization that he wasn't looking at a 'little girl.' He was looking at a predator. His bravado broke like glass.
"The... the old textile mill!" he sobbed, blood dripping from his chin onto the floor. "Sector 4! Lucas is waiting in the basement! Please... please, no more! Just take me to the cops!"
I let go of his hair, letting his head thud back against the floor. I stood up, smoothing my hair back as if I hadn't just dismantled a human being in front of my entire family.
I turned to face the room. My mother was trembling, her hands over her mouth. Percy and Aries were staring at me as if I were a stranger they'd just met on a dark street. Even Keifer was silent, his gaze burning with an intense, dark fascination.
"Jay," Percy whispered, his voice trembling. "Who is Lucas? And who are they ? What are you hiding?"
I looked at him, then at my parents, my expression unreadable. I was the Queen of a world they were never supposed to see.
"I am going to get my brother," I said, my voice sharp and regal. "And I am going to end the man who touched him. When I come back, I will answer every single one of your questions. But right now? Stay out of my way."
Keifer stepped up behind me, his shadow looming over her, but instead of stopping me, he reached out and took her hand, his fingers interlacing with mine.
"We aren't stopping you, Jay," Keifer rasped, his eyes fixed on the blank tablet screen. "We're going to help you burn his world down.
I nodded and we move towards the old textile mill.