Chapter 15
Seph
I stood outside Elliot’s office, pacing. I knocked on the door, but no one answered. I could hear him speaking to someone on the phone.
I tried the handle. The door opened.
I stepped inside.
“When is the next— That soon? Have you found a target—”
I could hear him speaking quietly in the other room. I sat in a chair near the window, staring out without really seeing it.
When he saw me, he paused.
“Can I call you back?”
When Elliot hung up, he turned to me.
“So,” Elliot said, at last. “Seph.”
“You summoned me?” I said quietly.
“I did,” he said.
He paused, watching me closely.
“So, what do you need from me?” I asked.
“I have cameras in this compound,” he said. “Did you know that?”
My stomach sank. “You do?”
“Everywhere,” he said evenly. “The halls. The common areas. The cells.”
I stiffened my shoulders. “Oh.”
My skin crawled.
“Oh is right,” he said. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice you going to see Gideon?”
I bit my lip, not answering.
Elliot watched me for a long moment. Like I was a variable that had moved somewhere he hadn’t planned for.
“I didn’t summon you to punish you,” he said at last. “If that’s what you’re thinking.”
I didn’t relax.
“I went to my father,” I said carefully. “I didn’t hide that from you. I just didn’t ask permission.”
His mouth twitched. Not a smile.
“No,” he said. “You didn’t.”
Silence stretched between us, thick and uncomfortable.
“You understand why that’s a problem,” Elliot continued. “Gideon is not just your father. He’s a security risk. A manipulator. And someone with every reason to use you if he can.”
“I didn’t go in alone,” I said. “Dev was with me.”
“And he will be dealt with in due course,” he said calmly.
The words landed heavier than anything else he’d said.
My stomach turned. “So, you were watching.”
“I was aware,” he corrected. “You put yourself at risk, Seph.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, the movement instinctive. Defensive.
“It didn’t feel like a risk to me. I was perfectly safe.”
Elliot’s gaze softened — just slightly. Not enough to be comforting.
“I know you feel like that. And I understand. Holding a power like yours — it’s easy to believe danger no longer applies.”
I flushed at the comment, looking away.
“This compound exists because people like you are hunted, Seph,” he said. “Because sentiment gets people killed. Because good intentions don’t stop bullets.”
“I didn’t go there out of sentiment,” I said firmly. “I went because he knows things you don’t. Things about Marr. About Echo.”
That caught his attention.
His eyes sharpened. “What did he tell you?”
I hesitated.
“He told me Marr has a place. In Blackwater Point.”
Elliot exhaled slowly, turning back toward the window. For the first time since I’d entered the room, he looked tired.
“That place has been empty for years,” he said. “Off the grid.”
“So, you believe me,” I said.
“I believe Marr would choose somewhere like that to continue his experiments,” Elliot replied. “Yes.”
Relief flickered through me — brief, fragile.
“But” he continued, turning back to face me, “that doesn’t change the fact that you put yourself in danger without clearance. Without backup. Without considering what it would cost the people who would have to clean up the fallout.”
My jaw tightened. “I’m not a weapon you get to lock away until it’s convenient.”
“No,” he said immediately. “You’re not.”
That surprised me.
“But you are someone this organisation is responsible for,” he went on. “And responsibility means limits.”
“Whose?” I asked quietly. “Mine. Or yours.”
The question hung there between us.
Elliot studied me for a long moment, like he was seeing something new — or finally admitting he had been wrong about something old.
“Both,” he said at last.
I took a breath. “I want to go there. To Blackwater.”
“No.”
“You can’t stop me if I decide to go.”
Elliot didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. “Actually,” he said evenly, “I can. And I will.”
My chest tightened. “Then what am I? A prisoner?”
“No,” he replied immediately. “A responsibility.”
“One who isn’t allowed to leave,” I shot back.
“One who isn’t allowed to walk into a kill zone unprepared,” Elliot corrected evenly. “I’m not stripping you of freedom, Seph. I’m buying you time. The alternative gets you killed — and anyone stubborn enough to follow you.”
“You mean Ash.”
“Or Dev. Or Kieran.”
“Kieran wouldn’t,” I said quietly. “He’d just lock the doors and call it protection.”
A faint breath of amusement touched Elliot’s expression. Not mockery. Something older.
“I think you would be surprised at what he would do for you, Seph.”
I narrowed my eyes, anger buzzing just beneath my skin. “Taking away my choices is not protection.”
“No, it’s leadership,” Elliot said.
“I don’t cage my people. I don’t cut them off from their allies. But no one leaves this compound without a plan.” His gaze sharpened. “Especially not you.”
My jaw clenched. “Because I’m dangerous?”
A pause.
“No,” he said quietly. “Because you’re valuable.”
“I need to find her,” I said, the words tearing out of me. “I need to find Echo. He will hurt her. You don’t understand.”
Elliot’s jaw tightened. “I understand exactly what Marr does,” he said. “And that’s why I won’t let you walk back into his hands.”
“Echo is out of our reach right now. How will you get past the guards? How will you fight Marr?” His voice stayed level, relentless. “All that will happen is you’ll end up right back there — like you were in that ward. Part of his machine.”
“I can’t leave her!” I shouted. “She’s my sister!”
Something sharp flashed across Elliot’s face — not cruelty but resolve.
“Sable is your sister,” he said firmly. “Echo is a life Marr created - to control you. And if we rush in blind, he will turn her into a weapon — against you, against all of us.”
“You don’t get it, Elliot,” I said, my voice shaking. “I was inside her mind. I heard her thoughts. She’s more than what he made her. And she’s relying on me to save her.”
Elliot didn’t interrupt. He watched me closely, like he was deciding how much truth I could bear.
“I read your files,” he said at last. “Before they disappeared. I know exactly what Echo is.”
My stomach tightened.
“She was built from your DNA,” he continued. “Grown deliberately. Refined.” His voice stayed even, careful. “Marr selected every trait, every strand. Not to imitate you — but to mirror you.”
I felt cold spread through my chest.
“Echo isn’t just Light magic,” Elliot said. “She’s pure output. She doesn’t have a limiter. If she is turned against the world — cities would burn.”
He held my gaze.
“That’s why I won’t let you run to her unprepared. Because if Marr loses control of Echo, the first thing he’ll do is point her at you.”
My breath stalled.
“She wouldn’t—”
“Hope,” he said gently, “is not a strategy.”
I stood up, pacing back and forth. “So, you expect me to what? Stay there in his grasp, used for God knows what? I’ve been where she is, Elliot. I know what it’s like to be prodded, poked and experimented on. To be tortured in the name of science. I can’t let anyone go through that. I won’t.”
“I’m not saying no,” Elliot said. “But I could authorise recon. An information hunt.” He paused. “It won’t be easy. And I’d need something from you in return — something I can justify to my people.”
My stomach dropped. “What kind of thing?” I asked softly.
Elliot stood, clasping his hands behind his back. He sighed, like a man accepting a cost he’d already decided to pay.
“In our cells, we hold more than Gideon,” he said. “We have soldiers of the Light — captured in the last raid. They tried to kill our people.”
I swallowed.
“Equinox won’t negotiate for their lives,” he continued. “Not unless we give them a reason.”
His eyes lifted to mine.
“A reason stronger than pride.”
Cold spread through me. My hands trembled.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head. “No.”
“It’s all I can think of, Seph,” Elliot said. “Use your ability. Let them see what you are.” His voice stayed measured. Reasonable. “Do that, and I promise you this — when the time comes, you’ll have a loyal army at your back.”
Tears burned behind my eyes. “You want me to torture them?”
His jaw tightened. Just once.
“I don’t want this. But if fear prevents a war, I will bear that cost.”
“But you won’t, Elliot.” I whispered.
“Won’t what?”
“Bear the cost. I will.”
I took a step back, but his face was impassive. For a moment I glimpsed his aura.
It was clear. White. Unmarred.
No trace of doubt in it.
And in that moment, I knew his power.
Outcome convergence.
“Think about it, Seph. You think about it and let me know.”
“Don’t you already know my answer?” I asked softly. “You can see outcomes, right? What will I say?”
He stilled. “No Seph. I can’t read you. That’s the thing that worries me. When I look at you, I see – ”
“A void.” I whispered.
“Yes,” he said. “All I can do is try and hope you make the right call.”
I stood up and moved towards the door, but once there I paused.
“I may be a void, Elliot. But I’m also a person. Maybe you should try to remember that,” I said finally.
Before he could say another word, I was gone.