Chapter 23 – Enya
The second I step through the threshold, my breath turns shallow.
It’s like walking into a tomb that hasn’t been opened in years, only the dust is fear, and the shadows aren’t empty. They watch.
I follow close behind Cyril, my boots clicking softly against the concrete floor. The click echoes, bouncing off the walls like tiny warnings. Aldo’s codes worked; Daiki’s voice sequence did the rest. The moment Cyril entered the five digits and uploaded the voiceprint, the door unlocked with a low, unnatural hiss.
Now, we’re inside.
The hallway stretches out before us, long and narrow, lit by flashing industrial lights that make everything feel surreal, like we’re walking through a nightmare that hasn’t ended. The walls are lined with exposed wires and old stains that tell stories I’m not interested in. The ceiling groans every few feet, and somewhere deep inside the building, something creaks like it’s remembering pain.
Outside, Alvise and the rest of the team are spread out, covering every angle, every window, every inch of this cursed building. Snipers on the nearby rooftops, earpieces crackling in low tones. No one else is coming in.
Just us.
Cyril didn’t want it that way. Not entirely.
“You should stay outside,” he muttered earlier, gripping my arm. “Let me handle this.”
I shook my head, heart pounding. “You said not to leave your side. I’m here, Cyril. I’m not backing down now.”
His eyes searched mine, a war happening in their depths. But he didn’t argue again.
Now, as I move through this space, I understand his fear. This place is dead inside. There’s no light, no warmth. Just decay. And somewhere in this darkness, my little boy.
My shoes scrape lightly as I walk. I keep one hand out, brushing the wall, needing the contact to keep grounded. The smell of mold and mildew is worse, forcing its way into my nose.
Then, I hear it.
A sound that breaks something open in my chest.
A muffled whimper. Tiny and afraid.
“Eny?”
My heart cracks wide open.
“Ren!” I shout, my feet moving before my brain can even register it. I run, faster than I’ve done in years, without a thought for caution or caring if my voice alerts the devil himself. I just run.
We burst into a wide room. It’s gutted—concrete, steel, and emptiness. The beams overhead are exposed, some half-rotted. A single cot lies abandoned in one corner, barely more than a metal frame with a thin mattress. There’s dust everywhere.
And him.
Ren.
Curled in the far corner of the room. Hands covering his ears. Knees pulled to his chest.
Unharmed.
But shaking.
And standing over him, like some sick punctuation mark in this nightmare, is Kai.
He turns when he hears us, like we’ve just arrived for coffee and conversation. He smiles. Calm. Polished. Unbothered. Like nothing’s been broken or betrayed or stolen.
“Enya,” he says. That voice. Smooth. Still trying to sound like love. “You came.”
Cyril doesn’t speak. He doesn’t breathe. He’s already stepping forward like a storm about to unravel. His gun is raised, steady, lethal.
“Step away from him,” he growls.
Kai lifts his hands slowly. He’s holding a gun. He’s not frightened. He’s smirking like this is a joke.
“He’s fine. Just scared. I never touched him.”
I want to believe him.
Because even now, with everything he’s done, there’s still that sick, stupid part of me that remembers the man I thought I loved. The man who made me tea when I was sad. The man who made love to me in the early days like it meant the world to him. The man who made promises he never intended to keep.
He’s a liar.
But he’s never lied with his hands.
Without waiting, I cross the room in seconds. I drop to my knees beside Ren. My fingers reach for him, desperate.
“Baby,” I whisper, wrapping my arms around him. “You’re okay. I’ve got you. I’m here.”
He clings to me like a lifeline, and I hold him close, tightening my grip on him enough to turn my knuckles white.
Ren trembles against me, his tiny fingers clutching the fabric of my shirt like I’m the only solid thing left in his world. And maybe I am. Maybe I have to be.
Kai steps closer, slow and measured, walking a slow circle around us like a man unraveling. His wide eyes never leave mine, and I see the mania in them.
“I didn’t want it to end like this,” he says, voice rough, low.
Cyril’s growl rips through. “Then you shouldn’t have started it.”
Kai doesn’t even look at him. His gaze is fixed on me. Just me.
“I loved you, you know,” he says. “Maybe not at first. But I did.”
I hold Ren tighter, shaking my head, the ache in my chest turning molten. “Don’t.”
He keeps talking, his voice climbing with every word.
“Sora and I…we were everything,” he says. His lips twist like he’s chewing on the memory. “We met when we were barely out of school. She was light and fierce and untouchable, and somehow, she looked at me like I mattered. We had years, Enya. Not weeks. Years of history. Of firsts. She saved me. I was nothing before her. And then they took her from me. Her father. Then him.”
His voice rises now. Angry, sharp. He swings his gaze to Cyril, eyes blazing. “The moment she married you, I knew I had to destroy you. She loved me! She did! Until her fucking father and your damn name poisoned her against me!”
He’s shouting now, pacing, wild. “I joined the Fiores because I had nothing left! I worked like a dog for years, ran blood, ran deals, earned every goddamn scar. Now, they’ve given up on me. And then you…” he points at Cyril again, venomous, “you took Enya from me, too. So, I decided to take away what was most precious to you. An eye for an eye. Isn’t that how your kind plays it?”
He jerks his chin at Cyril, the hate etched so deeply it’s like a second face.
Cyril scoffs. “You never cared about her. You used Enya because she let you in. You used her because she was easy to manipulate.”
Kai’s mouth twitches. His eyes flick back to me. “No,” he says, voice cracking. “I used Enya because she was real. Because she reminded me what it felt like to be wanted. Like I mattered.”
My heart stutters.
There’s no love in what he did. Just obsession and need disguised as something softer.
He continues, “You were such an idiot, running after the properties and the docks. It was just a distraction…all of it. I wanted to waste your time and make you run around like I did for years.”
I rise slowly. My body moves on instinct, placing Ren behind me, nudging him toward Cyril’s legs. Cyril shifts subtly, positioning himself between Ren and danger without taking his eyes off Kai.
“What you did to me—” I say, barely able to get the words out. “What you did to Ren…it was for revenge?”
Kai’s face twists. It’s not anger now. It’s despair. Desperation. His clothes hang off him like he hasn’t eaten or slept in days. The once-crisp lines of his blazer are wrinkled, stained near the collar. His shirt’s untucked. Buttons misaligned. His hair is disheveled, damp from sweat or rain or madness. He moves like a man on the edge of collapse—twitchy, unhinged.
“It was the only way I could win,” he rasps. “Don’t you see? He took everything. He always wins. And I was supposed to win this time.”
“You lost,” Cyril says sadistically. “The moment you put a child in the crossfire, you fucking lost.”
Kai’s eyes dart to Ren, and he looks at him with resentment.
“He took her,” he says. His voice is trembling now. “He took you. And now he gets to keep this boy, too?”
“Don’t,” Cyril says, stepping forward, gun raised. His voice is steel. Final.
But it’s too late.
Kai’s hand twitches.
And then he lifts his gun.
It’s aimed at Ren, and Kai’s eyes are wild. “YOU’LL ONLY UNDERSTAND WHAT I WENT THROUGH WHEN YOU GO THROUGH THE SAME THING! WHEN THE MOST PRECIOUS THING TO YOU IS TAKEN AWAY….”
“NO—!”
I throw myself forward.
The shot cracks like lightning, louder than the end of the world.
Pain explodes in my side. It’s not sharp. It’s blunt. All-consuming. Like fire and ice searing through every nerve at once.
I hit the ground hard. My breath punches out of me in a rush. The ceiling blurs above me, lights swimming in watery halos.
There’s blood on my shirt.
My hands.
The floor.
Everything hurts.
Kai lowers the gun slowly. His face changes. Just like that. Horror washes over him, flooding out the rage, the obsession, everything. He stares at me like he doesn’t recognize what just happened.
“Sunshine…I didn’t—I wasn’t—”
He stumbles forward.
“I didn’t mean to—”
BANG.
The gunshot is deafening.
It echoes through the room like thunder. One second, Kai is there, wild and broken and furious, and the next, he’s not.
Cyril’s shot hits him square in the chest. Center mass.
Kai staggers back, eyes wide with surprise, like this isn’t how he thought it would end. He collapses in an ugly sprawl, arms open, head twisted to the side. His mouth opens like he might speak, but there’s nothing left in him. No words. No breath. No second chances.
Just a sudden quiet.
He’s dead before he hits the floor.
Everything goes quiet. Just for a beat.
"Eny!" Ren’s scream cuts through the numbness, through the ringing in my ears. It’s raw and terrified. He’s sobbing, calling my name over and over.
I want to reach for him. I want to tell him it’s okay, that I’m here, that it’s over.
But I can’t move.
The pain comes roaring back, a tidal wave that floods my entire body. My side is on fire, and my hands are sticky with blood—too much of it. The floor beneath me is wet and cold, and I can’t tell where the pain ends and the fear begins.
Cyril’s face is suddenly above mine.
His hands are on my cheeks, holding me like I’ll disappear if he lets go. His eyes are wild, blown wide with panic. There’s blood on his shirt. On his hands. On me.
“Stay with me,” he says, voice cracking. “Enya…stay with me. Please. Please, just hold on.”
I try to speak. My lips move, but my voice is barely a whisper.
“I’m sorry,” I manage. “I’m so sorry.”
His grip tenses. “No. No, none of that. You don’t get to be sorry. You saved him. You saved our Ren. Just stay with me. Look at me.”
My vision blurs. The edges of the room start to dissolve. The lights above me smear into glowing halos, then into nothing at all.
I try to hold onto his voice.
But the pain creeps in and the noise fades away.
All that’s left is a deep release.
Blood spreads across the concrete floor.
Kai’s body lies twisted and lifeless, eyes staring at nothing.
Ren cries until his voice breaks.
And Cyril—Cyril screams for help, his voice raw and ragged like I’ve never heard before.
I fall into the dark, and everything goes black.