Page 22

H argen

Morning comes, and I watch the light catch Vanya’s hair where the strands cling to her cheeks. And for the first time since the nightmare of watching her die, I wake up believing in hope.

She’s here. Real. Breathing softly beside me with one hand curled against my chest like she’s afraid I might disappear.

Last night changed everything. Not just the reunion, not just the desperate need finally satisfied, but the conversations that stretched between touches. Plans forming in whispered words. A future that seemed possible again.

She stirs as I slip from the bed, those pale blue eyes opening to find mine.

“Hey,” she says, her voice husky with sleep.

“Hey,” I say back, taking in the sight of her with a hunger that surprises me.

“What’s the time?” she asks.

“Just past dawn.” Sliding from the haven of our shared bed, I pull on my clothes, movements steady despite the anticipation thrumming through my veins. “I’m going to get hold of Viktor.”

“My secure phone is on the kitchen counter.” She sits up, sheet pooling around her waist, completely unselfconscious. “Encryption protocols are already active.”

We discussed this last night—the need to move fast once we committed. Viktor’s extraction teams can deploy within hours, but only if we give them enough notice. Only if we’re ready to disappear completely.

In the kitchen, I brew coffee while I dial the emergency number he provided. Two cups—one black for me, one with cream for her. Small domesticity that feels revolutionary after decades of distance.

The connection stabilizes as Vanya joins me, wearing a silk robe that clings to curves I memorized again last night.

“Operative online,” I start the comms brief the way he’d briefed me.

“Cole.” Viktor’s voice carries cautious anticipation.

“Affirmative,” I say, seeing Vanya’s lips twitch slightly at the stilted military speak.

“Status report.”

“Mission complete. I’ve located the package.” I pause, letting the significance sink in. “Confirmed and ready for delivery. We can proceed immediately.”

Silence stretches across the connection. When Viktor speaks again, his voice carries genuine surprise.

“Remarkable. I gave you three weeks, and you’ve accomplished this in days.” Papers rustle as he processes the implications. “You’re certain we have cooperation?”

“Absolutely. She understands the value of Aurora’s protection and is prepared to share intelligence on Syndicate operations.” I catch Vanya’s slight nod of approval at the phrasing. “How quickly can you deploy extraction?”

“Location?”

I give him our address, not far from the Syndicate stronghold.

“I’ll get teams mobilized now. We can have you out in thirty minutes.” Viktor’s excitement bleeds through his professional tone. “Transport will arrive at your coordinates. Two passengers plus essential items only.”

Thirty minutes. Faster than I dared hope, but Viktor recognizes the significance of this intelligence coup.

“Understood. We’ll be ready.”

“Outstanding work, Cole. This changes everything.” His approval carries weight that I find oddly gratifying. “History will remember this recruitment.”

The connection ends, leaving silence that should feel triumphant. Instead, I notice Vanya’s expression has shifted. The soft contentment from moments ago has been replaced by something harder to read.

“Half an hour,” I say, setting down the device.

“Yes.” She sips her coffee, but her eyes are distant. “Not much time.”

“Enough to pack what matters. Wake Ember. Explain that we’re taking a trip.” I move around the island toward her, already planning the logistics. “She’ll love it. Clean air, good community, other dragon families.”

“It sounds perfect,” she says quietly.

“It will be.” I reach for her hand, twining our fingers together. “All three of us. Finally.”

She doesn’t pull away, but something in her posture makes me pause. A tension that wasn’t there when we fell asleep planning our escape.

“Vanya?”

“I need to tell you something.” She sets down her coffee with careful precision. “About the extraction.”

The words make my stomach drop. “What about it?”

“I’m not coming with you.”

The kitchen spins. Coffee turns bitter in my mouth. “What?”

“I can’t leave.” She meets my eyes steadily, no apology in her expression. “The network depends on the Shadowhand’s continued presence. If I disappear, everything I’ve built falls apart.”

“We discussed this. Last night—”

“We discussed escape. We discussed possibilities.” Her voice stays level while my mind threatens to fracture. “I never said I was leaving.”

I step back, releasing her hand. “You let me believe—”

“I let you hope. Because I needed to hope, too, even if only for a few hours.”

“This is insane.” I prowl to the window, staring out at the simple road that will soon be filled with extraction vehicles. “You can’t stay. They’ll discover who you are, eventually. When they do—”

“When they do, I’ll handle it.” She follows me across the kitchen but doesn’t touch me. “The same way I’ve been handling it for fifteen years.”

“By yourself.”

“By myself.”

“That’s not good enough anymore.” I turn to face her, and she’s close enough that I can see the exhaustion she hides so well. “You have a daughter to think about. You have—”

“I have a network protecting dozens of dragons from Ivory League extremists.” Her composure finally cracks, just slightly.

“Others like Ember who would be targeted for ‘purification’ if the wrong people found out about them. Cassia Nightvale’s intelligence sources.

Safe passage routes for families fleeing Syndicate territories. ”

She moves to the kitchen drawer, retrieves something I can’t see.

“If the Shadowhand vanishes, all of that collapses. Those families become exposed. Cassia becomes a target for harboring a traitor.” She turns back to me with an envelope in her hands.

The logic is sound. Brutal, but sound. Intelligence networks don’t survive the sudden disappearance of key assets. Everyone connected to the Shadowhand would become a liability to be eliminated.

“So what are you asking me to do?” The words come out roughly. “Take Ember and pretend her mother doesn’t exist?”

“I’m asking you to give her what I can’t.” Vanya holds out the envelope—cream paper with Ember’s name written across the front. “Safety. Truth about her heritage without the baggage of mine. A chance of a normal life.”

I take the letter, feeling its weight. “You’re asking me to tear her away from the only parent she’s ever known.”

“I’m asking you to save her.” For the first time, Vanya’s control wavers. “From the Ivory League. From Syndicate extremists. From me.”

“From you?”

“Do you think proximity to me makes her safer?” She laughs bitterly. “I’m the most wanted traitor in their organization. If I’m uncovered, my life will be stripped bare, my secrets revealed. Everyone I love becomes a target by association.”

I run a hand through my hair, my fingertips raking my scalp. “I need a moment to think about this,” I say, stalking past her to prowl through the house for long minutes.

Goddammit!

Again. After promising that we’d work on this together, she’s done it again.

Through the window, I spot the first vehicle—a dark SUV moving with purposeful calm down the residential street. Viktor’s advance team, establishing perimeter.

“They’re here,” I say as I head back to the kitchen, where she’s still standing silently.

“I know.” Vanya moves toward the hallway. “Go wake Ember. I’ll get things locked away here.”

“This isn’t over.”

She pauses in the doorway. “I know that too.”

“I’ll find a way back to you.”

“Maybe.” A ghost of a smile crosses her face. “You’re persistent when you want something.”

“I want you. Both of you.”

“Then take care of her. Keep her safe. Let her grow up knowing her father loves her enough to sacrifice everything for her future.”

The envelope crumples slightly in my grip. Whatever’s written inside—explanations, justifications, promises for a reunion that might never come.

“I will never stop caring about you,” I tell her, because after years of loss and lies and carefully maintained distance, it’s the only truth that matters.

“Me too.” She comes back long enough to kiss me softly, tasting like coffee and goodbye. “I care so much. For both of you. More than my own life.”

Outside, more engines. The extraction team is in position.

“Go wake our daughter,” she says. “Tell her that her life is about to change.”

“Don’t you think you should be the one to do that?”

A flash of pain darkens her fine features. “I… I can’t. Not now,” she whispers. It’s the first sign of vulnerability she’s shown since telling me she’s not coming.

“Okay,” I say, knowing it’s pointless to argue. I head toward Ember’s room, the letter burning in my jacket pocket like an accusation. Behind me, I hear Vanya moving through the house—securing files, activating wards, ensuring nothing remains that could compromise her network.

Still protecting everyone but herself. Still choosing duty over the happiness we both deserve.

The injustice of it cuts deep.

I stop in the hallway, fists clenched, fighting the urge to storm back and demand she reconsider. To tell Viktor the extraction is off, that we need more time. To choose love over logistics for once in our impossible lives.

But Ember’s door is in front of me, and she’s the priority now. The innocent caught between our world of shadows and sacrifices.

I push open her door, preparing to wake my daughter and explain why we’re leaving without her mother. Why the reunion I’ve dreamed of for decades is ending almost before it began.

As I watch her sleep—so young, so unaware—I understand Vanya’s choice even as it tears me apart. This isn’t about strategy or intelligence networks. It’s about a mother who would rather break her own heart than risk her daughter’s life.

“Ember.” I touch her shoulder. “Time to wake up. We need to go soon.”

She stirs, dark eyes fluttering open, blinking in confusion. “Hargen? What’s wrong?”

Everything. Nothing. The world reshaping itself around choices no one should have to make.

“We’re leaving,” I tell her, forcing steadiness into my voice. “We’ve arranged a team to get you someplace safe.”

She lifts herself into a sitting position, pushing a tumble of silvery hair out of her face. “So soon?”

“The sooner the better.” I smile. It’s forced.

“Where’s Mom?” she asks.

“Just sorting out a few things,” I say.

Gathering her strength for the goodbye that’s inevitable.

Ember stands and reaches for a duffel bag at the end of the bed. Her movements are careful, deliberate—someone processing earth-shattering revelations while trying to maintain control. I doubt she woke up yesterday thinking that her whole world would change within twenty-four hours.

“I need a few minutes to get ready,” she says quietly.

“Go ahead.” I leave the room and wait for her in silence.

In the distance, I hear Vanya moving through the house. The soft whisper of magic as she activates final protections. The careful erasure of our presence here.

She’s letting us go. Choosing sacrifice over selfishness. Proving once again why I fell in love with her in the first place.

But that doesn’t make leaving any easier. Doesn’t stop the fury burning in my chest at a world that forces impossible choices on the people trying to do right.

It’s so fucking unfair.