Flashback — Thirteen Years Ago
The halls of Veil Manor echoed with laughter and music. Scarlet—then still known by her birth name—danced barefoot across marble floors.
Annora clapped along, spinning beside her. “You’re going to run this place one day!”
Scarlet grinned. “And you’ll be by my side.”
Annora held up a teacup like a crown. “The Queen and her Knight.”
But their joy shattered when the doors burst open.
Blood on their father’s hands.
Lys behind him, smiling.
“You’ll learn,” their father said. “You’ll both learn what it means to rule.”
Miro paced the hallway, whispering into a burner phone.
“She’s digging. Deeper than I thought. If she finds the ledger—”
Kaydence appeared behind him. “She won’t. Not unless you hand it to her.”
Miro turned, startled. “You think I’d betray her?”
“You already did.”
Miro’s jaw tightened. “I saved her. From Annora. From herself.”
Kaydence shook his head. “You’re just afraid of what happens when she learns the truth.”
In the archives beneath the cathedral ruins, Scarlet found it.
A journal.
Her mother’s.
The pages were brittle, but the ink was clear.
“Lys is the darker half. She sees the world in scars and debt. If something happens to me, protect Scarlet. Tell her… tell her I loved her more than the legacy.”
Scarlet’s eyes filled with tears she didn’t allow to fall.
Legacy.
That word again.
She traced her mother’s signature with trembling fingers.
The world tipped sideways.
Because beneath the journal…
Was a letter.
Addressed to Kaydence Drankworth.
Sealed with Veil wax.
Night fell like a sword.
Scarlet entered Kaydence’s room, letter in hand.
He was already sitting, staring at a map of safe zones.
“You knew,” she said.
He looked up. Said nothing.
“You knew she wrote you. My mother. Before she died.”
Kaydence stood slowly. “I was trying to protect you.”
“By lying to me?”
He sighed. “She told me the truth. About the twins. About Lys. She asked me to watch you.”
“Like a guard dog?”
“Like someone who loved you.”
Scarlet’s eyes burned. “Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want to lose you.”
Flashback — Five Years Ago
Kaydence knelt at a grave, the Veil crest etched in marble. A letter in his hand.
“Protect her. Even if it means lying. Even if it means leaving.”
He burned the letter after reading it.
And vowed to never let Scarlet become her father.
But now… the truth had claws.
A broadcast cut across every channel.
Lys.
Alive.
Unscarred.
“Miss me?” she said, lounging on a throne of red velvet.
“I gave you a taste of war. But I’ve only just begun.”
She held up a vial.
It pulsed with blue light.
“Project Revenant,” she said.
Scarlet’s blood ran cold.
Because that name…
Belonged to a Veil family experiment.
One that resurrected the dead.
“She’s bringing them back,” Scarlet whispered.
And behind Lys stood figures—shrouded, familiar.
One of them… looked like their mother.
The broadcast ended.
And the world didn’t breathe.
Scarlet stood frozen, staring at the black screen. Kaydence’s hand hovered at her back, unsure whether to hold her or run from her.
Lys was alive. And not just alive—she had their mother’s body.
Or something wearing it.
“Tell me it’s a lie,” Scarlet whispered.
Kaydence couldn’t.
Jasper tossed a detonator onto the table. “She’s not bluffing. Revenant was real. I read the old logs. They were trying to rewrite death.”
“Resurrect soldiers,” Miro muttered. “Immortal ones.”
Kaydence rubbed his face. “I thought they shut it down after the collapse.”
“No,” Scarlet said quietly. “They buried it.”
She looked at the screen. Still dark. Still humming.
“They buried everything I ever loved.”
The Mission
Jasper laid out the map. “We hit the Verona lab. It’s where the last Revenant research was conducted. If Lys is restarting the project, it’ll be there.”
Scarlet nodded. “Then we burn it.”
“Not just burn,” Kaydence said. “We erase it. Everyone involved. Everything they touched.”
Miro hesitated. “Including her?”
Kaydence didn’t flinch. “Especially her.”
Scarlet met his eyes. “If she really brought our mother back… then she’s already crossed the line.”