CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The Dominion
The first explosion tore through the eastern wall.
Gila felt the floor move beneath her feet.
Glass shattered.
Men shouted outside.
Then came another explosion.
Closer.
Gabriel grabbed Gila's arm.
"Down."
She dropped as a burst of gunfire tore through the windows.
Rymus pushed Thelma and Gila's mother behind a stone pillar.
"How many?" he shouted.
Gabriel looked through the broken window.
"Too many."
"Who are they?"
Gabriel's expression hardened.
"The Dominion."
Gila looked outside.
Figures were moving through the trees.
Not dozens.
Hundreds.
They wore no uniforms.
Some carried weapons.
Others carried equipment.
But every one of them moved with military precision.
Gila turned toward Gabriel.
"You said the Dominion was an inheritance."
"It is."
"Then who are these people?"
"Families."
She stared at him.
"Families?"
"Generations of them."
Another explosion shook the estate.
Gabriel pulled a pistol from beneath his jacket.
Gila looked at him.
"You still have weapons."
"I expected this day."
"You knew they would come."
"I knew eventually they would."
"Then why bring us here?"
Gabriel looked at her.
"Because I couldn't run forever."
The words stopped her.
For the first time, she saw the man behind the legend.
Not the founder.
Not the criminal.
Not the man whose name had haunted the archives.
Her father.
A man who had been running for years.
Gabriel turned to Rymus.
"There is a tunnel beneath the house."
Rymus nodded.
"I know."
Gila looked at him.
"You knew?"
"I helped build it."
She almost laughed.
"Of course you did."
Gabriel opened a hidden panel.
A staircase appeared.
"Take them."
Gila looked at her father.
"What about you?"
"I'm staying."
"No."
He looked at her.
"Gila."
"You don't get to disappear again."
His expression softened.
"I'm not disappearing."
He handed her a small metal key.
"You'll need this."
She looked at it.
"What does it open?"
"The final archive."
"The archive is destroyed."
"That was only the first archive."
Gila's eyes widened.
"There's another one?"
Gabriel nodded.
"The real one."
"Where?"
He pointed toward the river.
"Under the old station."
Gila remembered the red marker.
The place where her mother had disappeared.
"The first station."
"Yes."
"Then that's where we're going."
Gabriel shook his head.
"You're going."
"You're coming with us."
"I can't."
"Why?"
He looked toward the windows.
"Because they came for me too."
A voice echoed from outside.
"Gabriel!"
Everyone froze.
The voice was old.
Calm.
Commanding.
Gabriel's face changed.
Gila noticed immediately.
"You know him."
Gabriel nodded.
"Yes."
"Who?"
He whispered:
"The First."
The voice came again.
"You cannot hide forever."
Gabriel looked at Gila.
"Now you understand why I was afraid."
Thelma looked toward the tunnel.
"We need to leave."
Gila refused to move.
"Who is the First?"
Gabriel looked at her.
"The first person who inherited the Dominion."
"How old is he?"
"Old enough that nobody knows his real age."
"That's impossible."
"No."
Gabriel looked toward the darkness outside.
"What's impossible is believing evil dies simply because one man does."
Rymus grabbed Gila's shoulder.
"We have to go."
Gila looked at her father.
"I'll come back."
Gabriel smiled.
"I know."
She turned.
They descended into the tunnel.
The staircase led beneath the estate.
Water dripped from the ceiling.
The tunnel was narrow and dark.
Behind them, gunfire continued.
Gila looked at her mother.
"You knew he was alive."
Her mother nodded.
"Yes."
"You knew where he was."
"Yes."
"And you still kept him from me."
"I was afraid."
"Of him?"
"Of what would happen if you found him."
Gila stopped.
"What did he do?"
Her mother looked at her.
"He loved you."
Gila frowned.
"That's not an answer."
"It is."
She continued walking.
"Gabriel loved you enough to destroy everything around him."
Gila didn't understand.
"He joined the Dominion to protect us."
"And then?"
"He discovered what they really were."
"So he fought them."
"Yes."
"Then why did he become their leader?"
"Because sometimes you become the thing you are fighting before you realize it."
The words stayed with Gila.
They reached the end of the tunnel.
A wooden door opened onto the riverbank.
Rymus looked around.
"Where's the boat?"
"Here."
A small hidden vessel was tied beneath the trees.
They climbed aboard.
Gila looked back.
The estate burned in the distance.
She couldn't see Gabriel.
She didn't know if he had escaped.
She didn't know if he was alive.
But she knew she would return.
The boat disappeared into the darkness.
Hours later, they reached the old station.
The place was silent.
Too silent.
Gila stepped onto the shore.
"This is where my memory ended."
Her mother nodded.
"Yes."
Rymus followed.
Thelma remained near the boat.
Gila held the metal key Gabriel had given her.
She looked at the ruined station.
"Where?"
Her mother pointed toward the old platform.
"Underneath."
They moved through the ruins.
Behind a collapsed wall, Gila found a metal door buried beneath dirt.
She inserted the key.
The lock opened.
The door led downward.
A staircase.
Then another.
And another.
They descended deep beneath the earth.
At the bottom was a massive chamber.
Gila stopped.
The real archive.
It was enormous.
Hundreds of shelves.
Thousands of files.
Maps covering entire walls.
Photographs.
Records.
Names.
The history of the Dominion.
But something else stood in the center.
A large circular table.
On it was a single photograph.
Gila picked it up.
Her father.
Her mother.
And a third person.
The First.
Gila looked at the face.
Then her mother gasped.
"What?"
Her mother pointed.
"That's..."
She couldn't finish.
Gila looked closer.
She recognized him.
The man from the university.
The man who had helped them.
The man who had betrayed them.
But that wasn't what shocked her.
The photograph was dated forty-two years earlier.
And the man looked exactly the same.
Gila whispered:
"He's not human."
Rymus shook his head.
"No."
He looked at the photograph.
"He's worse."
A light appeared at the far end of the chamber.
Footsteps echoed.
Slow.
Measured.
Someone was approaching.
Gila turned.
A man stepped from the darkness.
The same face.
The same eyes.
The same calm smile.
The First.
He looked at Gila.
"Welcome home."
Gila raised the weapon Rymus had given her.
"You killed my father."
The man smiled.
"No."
He took another step.
"Your father is alive."
Gila's heart stopped.
"Where?"
The man pointed behind her.
Gila turned.
Gabriel stood at the entrance.
Blood covered his shirt.
But he was alive.
He looked at Gila.
Then at the First.
And whispered:
"Run."
The First smiled.
"You always were a coward, Gabriel."
Gabriel raised his weapon.
"No."
He looked at Gila.
"I was a father."
Then the chamber exploded into gunfire.