Chapter Fifty-Eight
Riven
The train screamed through the mountain like something alive.
Metal shrieked against rails beneath Blackwater Falls while all of us moved through the tunnels at a dead sprint, flashlights cutting violently through the dark.
Water dripped from the cavern ceilings; gunfire echoed somewhere deeper below.
The whole underground system trembled around us.
Olympus was evacuating. Let them run. It’d make the chase even sweeter.
We tore through the old rail tunnels fast enough my lungs started burning almost immediately. Deck and Roxy stayed close behind me while Dion led us through branching corridors he barely remembered from childhood. The deeper we went, the older the tunnels became.
Mining equipment rotted against stone walls. Railcars were collapsed. Everywhere you turned, there was rust and floodwater.
And the symbols. They were everywhere. The pillar and olive branch are painted onto support beams. The black two-pronged staff carved directly into stone. Ahead, the tunnel suddenly widened.
Then it opened. The underground station beneath Blackwater Falls looked like the entrance to hell.
Ancient rail platforms stretched across a massive cavern system lit by industrial floodlights bolted into rock walls.
Black water churned beneath iron bridges far below us, cutting through the cavern like a living river.
Train tracks spiderwebbed through the station in every direction while armed Olympus operatives rushed between platforms loading crates, weapons, documents- people.
Cages lined parts of the lower platform, human beings locked inside them. Women. Teenagers. Kids. My vision went red instantly.
“Riven.” Deck warned sharply.
Too late. Gunfire exploded from the far platform before any of us could move. We scattered immediately. Bullets ricocheted violently off stone columns while Olympus soldiers flooded the station from every direction. The entire cavern descended into chaos.
LBC and Phantoms surged into the station seconds later from the upper tunnel entrances behind us, screaming war cries that echoed through the underground cavern. Guess Deck called for backup after all. That, and Stonebridge finally learned who its real enemy was.
And now, everybody wanted blood.
I vaulted over the platform railing directly into the fight.
A soldier grabbed my jacket midair. I broke his nose with the gun before he even hit the ground.
Another rushed me from the left, knife in hand, fast, but not fast enough.
I buried my own blade beneath his ribs and kept moving before he stopped falling.
The station became violence. Bodies dropping onto tracks. Floodlights exploding overhead. The roar of the river beneath everything. Dion fought like somebody trying to kill his own bloodline. Ruthless. Furious. One of the Kingsmen loyalists recognized him near the center platform.
“Traitor!” Dion shot him twice in the throat without slowing down.
Deck pushed toward the cage platforms, trying to free prisoners while Roxy worked furiously at some control system near the rail switches.
Then alarms started screaming. Red emergency lights flooded the cavern instantly. And every train in the station stopped moving. Roxy’s voice echoed across the platform.
“I locked the rail system!” Nobody was escaping now, but something felt wrong.
This felt too easy. The gunfire suddenly started to die, not end. Stopping. One by one, Olympus operatives began retreating deeper into the station instead of fighting. Strategic withdrawal. My stomach tightened instantly.
“Riven!” Deck shouted.
“Something’s wrong!”
No shit. Out of nowhere, heavy metal gates crashed down around the station. One after another.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Steel barriers slammed across tunnel entrances, and rail exits with enough force to shake the station. People screamed as the entire station
sealed shut. Trap, it was a fucking trap. Gas hissed suddenly from vents overhead. Not poison. Smoke. Thick and black, it immediately flooded across the platforms, destroying visibility. Panic erupted everywhere.
I heard Shane yelling somewhere to my right. Gunshots. Water splashing. Then something slammed into the back of my skull hard enough to drop me to one knee. I turned swiftly; there were too many. Olympus soldiers swarmed through the smoke wearing masks now.
Prepared for this. Hands grabbed me from every direction.
I broke one arm, headbutted another. Shot somebody point-blank.
It didn’t matter. A metal baton cracked across my jaw.
Then another. Everything blurred. The last thing I saw before darkness swallowed me was Dion screaming while chains dropped from the ceiling platforms above us.
It was like they’d done this before. Many times.
Forgive me, daredevil.
_____
When I woke up, my head felt split open. Chains bit into my wrists hard enough to draw blood. The cavern looked different now, quieter. Smoke drifted through the underground station in ghostly ribbons while floodlights reflected off the black river beneath us, churning below the platform like oil.
I tried moving immediately. Metal restraints chained my wrists to iron rings bolted directly into the floor. Not just me, but Deck, Roxy, and Dion too. All restrained across the platform. Fuck. We were all bruised, bleeding, and furious. But we were alive. For now.
Bootsteps echoed slowly across the station. Measured and calm. Emerging from the smoke, Naoya stood there with an air of arrogance and an ego the size of Jupiter. He was alone. No guards. No weapon.
Just that immaculate black coat untouched by the chaos around him. The station fell silent. Even the river sounded quieter suddenly. Naoya looked at all of us chained to the platform with an almost disappointed expression.
“What a waste.” Dion immediately lunged against his restraints violently.
“You son of a bitch!” Naoya barely looked at him.
“That temper is why you were never suitable.” Dion went feral instantly. The chains rattled hard enough to shake the platform. Roxy spat blood onto the ground near Naoya’s shoes.
“You’ve been feeding this town to monsters for years.” Naoya sighed softly.
“No, Roxanne.” He looked out across the cavern.
“We gave Stonebridge purpose.” Rage clawed through me instantly.
“You all mistook survival for freedom.” The cavern lights flickered. He turned his attention toward the station itself. Toward the cages, the tunnels, the river.
“You all spent your entire lives believing Stonebridge belonged to you.” His voice echoed calmly across the cavern.
“The gangs. The territory. The violence.” He smiled faintly.
“It never did.”
“Where is Nadia?” I seethed. Naoya ignored me completely.
“This town was designed long before any of you were born.” He gestured toward the tunnels surrounding us.
“Every war. Every territory line. Every shipment moving through your streets.” His gaze shifted toward Deck.
“You thought you inherited a gang.” Then Roxy.
“You thought you inherited loyalty.” Then finally Dion.
“You thought you inherited a legacy.” Dion’s jaw clenched so hard I thought his teeth would crack. Naoya stepped closer to him slowly.
“But none of you understood the truth.” The cavern fell silent except for the river below.
“Olympus built Stonebridge to feed itself.” The words settled like poison.
“The gangs were never kings.” Naoya’s expression darkened slightly.
“You were pawns.” Deck stared at him with visible horror.
“You trafficked people through this town.”
“No,” Naoya corrected calmly.
“We trafficked desperation.” That sentence made my entire body go cold. Naoya looked toward the cages below.
“Poverty creates obedience. Violence creates profit. Addiction creates dependency.” His gaze swept across all of us.
“And grief ?” A faint smile.
“Grief creates monsters.” My chains snapped tight as I lunged toward him instinctively.
“I’m gonna kill you!” Naoya finally looked directly at me. Interested, not afraid. Almost pitying.
“You already became exactly what this town was built to create.” That hit harder than it should have. Because somewhere deep down? Part of me feared he was right. Naoya tilted his head slightly.
“The girl survives everything.” He said quietly.
“Just like her father.” He smiled.
“And now-”
That smile was wiped off his face as a gun clicked somewhere behind him. Every head snapped upward instantly, trying to figure out who was on the other end of the barrel. My heart nearly tore itself out of my chest and crawled its way back to where it always belonged.
Why?
Because Nadia Slade stepped out of the shadows above the rail platform in all her glory, dressed in her clothes from the crash, still stained with blood. One hand gripped the railing for balance while the other pointed a gun in the dead center of Naoya’s head.
She was alive. Breathing. Furious. Relief hit me so violently it physically hurt.
“Nadia-” She ignored everyone except Naoya. She was bruised, pale, and exhausted. But her eyes? Cold enough to freeze the river beneath us.
“You should’ve killed me properly.” She said, descending the stairs carefully.
The arm holding her gun not once wavering despite how battered she was. Naoya smiled slowly. Not at all surprised. It was like he’d been waiting. Expected her to come here. His mouth curved faintly.
“I knew you would wake eventually.”
“Shut up.”
“Nadia-”
“I said shut the fuck up!”
The venom in her voice echoed through the station. Dion stared at her like he’d seen a ghost. I think I did too. Because she looked half-dead standing up there in bloodstained clothes with bruises climbing her throat and dried blood matted in her hair. But she still somehow looked dangerous.
Naoya studied her quietly. Then smiled again.
“That look in your eyes.” He murmured.
“You got that from him.” Nadia’s expression hardened instantly.
“You don’t get to talk about my father.” Something unreadable flickered across Naoya’s face. Almost as if he was enjoying this.
“You still believe he abandoned you. You spent your entire life searching for ghosts,” Naoya said calmly.
“And still managed to misunderstand every single one.”
“You trafficked people through my town.”
“Our town.” Rage flashed across her face instantly.
“You don’t get to claim Stonebridge.” Naoya looked out across the cavern slowly.
“The gangs drew lines across streets and called it ownership.” His gaze shifted back to her.
“But Olympus built the foundation beneath them.” Nadia tilted her head slightly.
“You should’ve buried the archives deeper.” That finally got a reaction. Subtle, but there. Naoya’s eyes sharpened slightly. She saw it too.
“I found the records,” Nadia continued coldly.
“The shipments. The symbols. The photographs.” Her voice echoed through the station.
“The pillar. The helmet.” Naoya said nothing.
“Olympus and Ares. That’s what they mean.” She smirked slightly.
“The wars between the gangs.” Silence.
“The disappearances.” Floodlights flickered overhead.
“And every trail led back to you.” The gun remained perfectly steady in her hand.
“You built Olympus beneath Stonebridge.” Naoya’s smile returned slowly. Not proud. Almost impressed.
“You were always intelligent.”
“Don’t.” Her voice cracked like glass.
“Don’t stand there acting proud of me.” Something darker moved beneath Naoya’s expression then. Not anger, but something almost paternal.
“I watched you survive things that should’ve destroyed you.” Nadia laughed once.
“You watched me suffer.”
“The world is suffering.”
“Because of people like you.” Silence settled heavily across the station. Then Nadia spoke again. Quieter this time.
“But I finally understand now.” Naoya looked at her carefully.
“You took my mother from me.” Her breathing turned uneven from pain.
“You buried her.” Nadia’s eyes burned with hatred. Naoya’s expression changed almost imperceptibly, but not with guilt.
“You erased her and her people.” Every word came colder now.
“Took their land and their wealth. Chased them out and made those who stayed suffer. You killed her.” Naoya exhaled softly through his nose.
“You still believe death is the worst thing that can happen to a person.” Nadia raised the gun higher, standing a few paces in front of him now.
“The tunnels.” Her voice echoed through the cavern.
“The Styx.” The black river roared beneath us.
“The staff symbol.” Naoya stayed silent. Then Nadia finally said the word that made the entire station feel colder.
“It was all you… Hades .”
Naoya smiled slowly. Not mocking. Not triumphant either. Almost sad.
“She sees it all, but still so blind.”And from somewhere deep within the shadows behind him, a male voice answered.
“You’re wrong, my darling girl.”
Everything inside Nadia shattered visibly. Because Anton Stonyanov stepped out of the shadows behind Naoya and into the light.
Very. Much. Alive.