Chapter 24
Seph
The moment I saw Sable at the gates, I knew something was wrong.
Her eyes were dark and shuttered. Her jaw ticked once. She stood rigid at the gates, fury vibrating through her.
I slowed without meaning to.
“What?” I asked.
She closed the distance in two strides and stopped inches from me.
“You are a stupid, reckless girl,” she hissed.
The words hit because they weren’t wrong.
“Sable!” Dev snapped, already moving.
She didn’t even look at him.
“You couldn’t stay put,” she went on, voice low and shaking now. “You couldn’t wait. You just do what you want, to hell with the consequences.”
“I didn’t—” I started.
“Kieran is gone. So is Ash. Because they went looking for you.”
I glanced at Dev. He looked as bewildered as I felt. My ears rang. The ground tilted under my feet.
“What do you mean?” His voice had gone sharp.
“Come and see for yourself.”
She led us both to Elliot’s office. We found him sitting in front of a screen, remote in hand. When we walked in, he looked at us.
“Seph,” he sighed heavily.
“What happened?”
He gestured to the TV and pressed play.
I froze.
On the screen was my mother.
Georgina Quinn looked immaculate. Her blonde hair was smoothed down, her navy suit and pearls unmistakably expensive.
When she looked up, her eyes were red — as if she had been crying.
“This is a message for the Equinox Front,” she said coolly. “You sit there, hiding in your little rat holes, attacking the Light. Sending ferals after us in Light-strong cities. Destroying lives for your own selfish ends. As if the dark holds any power in Velithra.”
Cameras flashed around her.
“It was not enough that you killed my oldest daughter,” she continued. “My beautiful Sable.”
The lie slid out of her mouth like truth.
“You also stole my husband. Gideon Quinn.”
She drew in a steadying breath.
“And now,” she said, “you take my youngest daughter. Persephone.”
My face appeared on the screen.
I staggered back.
What the—
“Persephone is special,” my mother went on. “Different. She cannot fight for herself.”
My stomach churned so violently I thought I might be sick.
“And my husband,” Georgina continued, “has led Velithra to unprecedented success — particularly through his Light-central initiatives.”
The camera panned.
Prisoners.
A line of them, bound, exhausted, bruised.
“Let me be clear,” she said. “Quinns are not weak. Quinns endure.”
Her gaze hardened.
“If my family is not returned to me within three days, I will order the Soldiers of Light to begin executions.”
The room tilted.
At the end of the line —
Kieran.
Bound.
“No.”
The word tore out of me, raw and helpless.
It felt like my worst nightmare — not the fall, not the soldiers, not the river — but this.
“Why?” I whispered. “Why would she—”
I turned to Sable.
She didn’t flinch. Didn’t soften. Her face was unreadable, like she’d already burned through whatever this revelation had cost her.
Why would she want me back?
The thought made my chest seize.
The room closed in around me.
I turned and ran.
Down the hall, past doors and voices I couldn’t hear, until cold air slammed into my lungs and I burst onto the balcony.
Only then did I stop — gripping the railing, shaking, trying to breathe around the truth crashing down on me.
I sensed him before I saw him.
Dev stepped up beside me slowly, careful, like I might bolt if he moved too fast.
“Seph?”
I spun on him. “This is my fault.” The words spilled out, frantic.
The words didn’t even make sense, but I couldn’t stop them.
“I shouldn’t have gone for that ride. I shouldn’t have left. If I’d stayed—”
He closed the distance and caught my jacket, anchoring me. “It will be okay, Seph.”
I laughed — a broken, breathless sound. “How do you know that? How?” My voice cracked. “It’s Kieran. And Ash—” My throat closed. “Oh my god. Ash.”
My legs gave out beneath me. I sank to my knees, air coming too fast, too shallow, panic clawing at my ribs.
Footsteps sounded behind us — heavy, uneven. Slow.
“The fault was mine, little one,” a voice said softly.
I looked up.
Sy stood a few paces away, his movements stiff with pain, his posture careful. One arm hung awkwardly at his side, but his eyes — golden and bright — locked onto mine with unmistakable relief.
I surged to my feet and ran to him.
He folded his arms around me without hesitation, solid and sure, holding me like I might shatter if he didn’t. I buried my face against him and broke.
Behind us, Dev stood frozen — watching — his hands falling slowly to his sides as the moment slipped beyond his reach.
Sable stepped onto the balcony and came to stand beside him. She didn’t touch him. Didn’t speak. She just looked at him.
It was a knowing look — sharp, measured, unkind in its honesty.
Something in Dev’s posture tightened. His shoulders squared, his jaw setting like he’d just swallowed something hard. He nodded once, barely perceptible, and took a step back.
Not just away from her. Away from us .
“Seph. We need a plan,” Sable said finally. “Come back to the office.”
I pulled away from Sy.
But he didn’t let go.
It wasn’t until we got back to Elliot’s office that I realised Dev wasn’t with me.