Page 179 of Villainous Rise

The display at his desk showed a sterile white room. In the center sat a man in a clear containment cube. He appeared to be in his fifties, with salt-and-pepper hair and an aristocratic face that might have been handsome if not for the cold emptiness in his eyes. He sat perfectly still, reading a book.

Annie’s entire body froze against mine. Her breathing stopped for a moment, then resumed in a controlled rhythm.

She slowly pulled away from me, stepping toward the screen. Her face transformed, all emotion draining away, leaving behind a mask of terrible stillness.

She didn’t speak, didn’t blink, just stared at him. Twenty years of nightmares, of loss—all focused on this one man calmly reading a book in his prison cell.

Halcyon turned a page, his movements unhurried and precise.

I memorized every detail of his face. The aristocratic nose. The high forehead. The slight curl at the corner of his mouth that suggested perpetual amusement. The way his fingers delicately held the book’s spine, as if he were handling something precious.

Then, as if sensing our observation, Halcyon’s head snapped up. His eyes, utterly devoid of humanity, stared directly into the camera.

Annie jerked backward with a strangled sound, whirling away from the screen and crashing back into my arms. I pulled her tight against my chest while maintaining eye contact with the monster on the screen.

I made a silent promise in that moment, burning it into my soul like a brand. His continued existence was an obscenity. Every breath he took was an insult to Annie’s survival. One day, I would kill this man. I would peel the flesh from his bones while he begged for a mercy I lacked the capacity to give. Every nightmare he forced into Annie’s head required an agonizing physical correction. I was going to slaughter the man who made my woman tremble and lay his ruined corpse at her feet.

I held her tighter, my eyes never leaving Halcyon’s until Havoc terminated the connection. The bastard’s face disappeared, but my promise remained.

One day. No matter what it cost me.

“Tell me everything you know about Mercer and Halcyon,” I demanded. “Every connection, every detail.”

Havoc’s eyes lingered on Annie in my arms before shifting to me. “Halcyon and I were Nemeses,” Havoc said. “Back when I was still a League member and he was...” He paused, his face darkening. “When he was still considered the Alliance’s best. I did extensive research on him. Nothing as sophisticated as what you could do now, but it was thorough for the time. I wanted to know everything about him,” he continued. “His routines, his habits, his weaknesses. I tracked his movements, studied his fighting patterns, even figured out the civilian identities he adopted.”

Havoc sighed. “I know far more about Halcyon than the Alliance ever did. But after what happened to your family, Annie, after he was captured and contained, I didn’t think it mattered anymore.”

“Clearly it does,” I said coldly.

Havoc’s eyes returned to me, narrowing slightly. “Clearly,” he echoed, his tone matching mine. “I’ll send you what I have. The files that aren’t in any official records.” His mouth twisted. “If there even are any official records left. The Alliance has a habit of burying uncomfortable truths.”

“Send everything,” I said. “Every scrap of information, every observation, every theory, no matter how inane you think it is. I’ll find out who’s using the alias.”

As Havoc started pulling up files, Annie finally pulled back from my chest, her face pale but composed.

“I’m tired of being scared,” she said, her voice gaining strength with each word. “I’ve spent twenty years with this shadow hanging over me. I can’t keep living like this.”

Her eyes caught the light from Havoc’s displays, turning them a lighter shade of blue. Even tear-stained and rimmed with red, they were impossibly beautiful.

It was always her eyes that undid me. The rest of her, that sharp mind, the stubborn will, those I could occasionally resist. But her eyes pulled me in like gravity, inevitable and inescapable. They reflected everything she tried to hide: the strength she didn’t believe she possessed, the fear she fought to control, the longing she denied herself.

Even now, with the shadow of her worst nightmare looming over us, I found myself falling into those eyes, wanting to build her a world where they would never again reflect fear.

“I’ll find whoever’s using Mercer’s identity,” I promised, my thumb tracing the curve of her cheek. “And I’ll make them regret ever using it.”

“I’ve sent everything to Wraith,” Havoc said, his eyes flicking meaningfully to me. “All my personal files on Halcyon, including the unofficial investigations I conducted after what happened.”

“I’ll get to it immediately,” I replied.

Annie straightened her shoulders, pulling herself back into the composed Keeper everyone else saw.

“I’ll meet you at the Labyrinth after work,” she said, her voice steady.

I nodded and retrieved my mask from where I’d tossed it, running my thumb over the smooth surface.

Annie followed me to the door.

“Cipher,” Havoc called out. “We will be having a conversation about how you got past my security.”