Celina didn't sleep.
Not after the kiss.
Not after the truth.
She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling of the darkened bedroom, feeling the ghost of Darius's lips still lingering on hers. Part of her ached for more. Another part screamed to run. She wasn't sure which voice belonged to her anymore—or which had been trained into her since she was sixteen.
That damn video played on loop in her head.
Her unconscious body.
Her erased memory.
The words "She can't know what her father hid inside her."
What exactly had he hidden?
What was the Talon Protocol really?
She rose around 3 AM, restless, and padded barefoot toward the library. If there were answers in this mansion, that was the place to look.
The door creaked open. Moonlight streamed through the tall windows, casting silver shadows across old tomes and velvet chairs.
Celina ran her fingers along the spines of the books. Darius had mentioned her father was a cryptographer. There had to be clues—codes, books, notes.
She found one.
A dusty red journal tucked behind an atlas of war strategies. She flipped it open and gasped.
It wasn't a journal.
It was a cipher.
Pages upon pages of strange symbols, half-phrases, and equations.
One page stood out—its ink darker, fresher than the rest.
A single phrase:
When the mind remembers, the world will burn.
Celina's heart skipped.
She touched the page.
And then the world went white.
The flash hit like lightning behind her eyes.
Suddenly she was sixteen again. Cold floor beneath her. Screams echoing around a dark room. Needles in her arms. Men in black suits shouting.
And in the chaos—her father's voice.
"Don't look back, Lina! No matter what happens—don't let them find it!"
She turned in the memory.
Saw him—bloodied, kneeling. Holding a glowing chip.
Saw a woman lunge at him with a blade.
Then everything went black.
Celina jolted awake on the floor of the library, heart hammering.
Her fingers burned.
She looked down—red lines had formed on her palm.
Not cuts. Not bruises.
Symbols.
The same ones from the cipher.
She was breathing too fast, too hard.
Something inside her had been triggered.
She wasn't sure if it was power… or madness.
Then she heard it.
A soft click.
A shift in the hallway shadows.
Celina froze.
That sound wasn't part of the house.
It was too deliberate.
Too trained.
Someone was inside.
Before she could react, the window behind her shattered.
Glass rained down as a black-clad figure rolled into the room, gun in hand. Celina screamed and ducked behind a desk.
"Target acquired!" the intruder hissed into a mic.
She crawled, heart in her throat, grabbing a fireplace poker.
The man advanced—silent, swift, lethal.
Celina waited until he passed the corner.
Then slammed the poker into his knee.
He groaned and stumbled.
She dove for the door—only to come face-to-face with two more assassins.
"Sh*t," she whispered.
Gunfire erupted behind her.
She ducked. Bolted left.
A hand grabbed her wrist—strong, fast.
She spun, ready to strike—
Darius.
He pulled her behind him, firing two shots in clean succession. Both attackers fell instantly.
"Go to the panic room!" he growled. "Now!"
"I triggered something," Celina gasped. "They know I remembered."
Darius's jaw tensed. "Then we don't run. We end this."
Another window shattered.
An explosion rocked the back of the mansion.
Darius shoved her toward the hidden panel behind the bookshelf. "Get inside. You'll be safe—"
"I'm not hiding while they tear this house apart!"
He turned, grabbing her shoulders. "This isn't about pride, Celina. It's about survival. You don't even know what's inside your head yet—"
"Yes, I do," she whispered. "A memory. A message. Something they're terrified I'll uncover."
His eyes searched hers. "What did you see?"
"My father," she said. "He was dying. He said, 'Don't let them find it.' And there was a woman—she killed him."
Darius went still.
"What woman?"
"She had white hair. A scar on her cheek."
He cursed under his breath. "Lenora."
Celina blinked. "You know her?"
"She was your father's colleague. Before she betrayed him and stole the Talon blueprints. We thought she'd disappeared."
"Well, she's not gone," Celina said. "She's coming."
"No," Darius corrected. "She's already here."
The ceiling collapsed as another explosion tore through the upper floor. Smoke poured down the stairwell. Alarms screamed. Lights flickered.
Darius grabbed a second gun from the wall panel and handed it to her. "You ever shoot one of these?"
Celina stared at the weapon.
Then, quietly: "Only in training. Before my father stopped it."
Darius looked at her, stunned. "He was preparing you."
"Until he wasn't."
A crash upstairs snapped them back to reality.
Darius took her hand. "Stay behind me. No hero moves."
"Only if you stop hogging all the bullets."
Despite everything, he cracked a grin.
They moved.
Room by room, floor by floor.
Two more attackers.
Darius handled one. Celina shot the other—heart pounding, hands shaking, but her aim dead-on.
Afterward, she stood in the hallway, breath ragged.
Darius watched her. "You okay?"
She swallowed. "I don't think I've ever been okay."
"Then let's redefine what that means."
He stepped closer.
"You were never meant to be a victim. They just made the mistake of leaving you alive."
His words stirred something dangerous inside her.
Not fear.
Fire.
They reached the basement vault just as the final wave of mercenaries descended. The firefight was brutal. Loud. Bloody.
Celina ducked behind a pillar, firing back, adrenaline surging. Darius moved like a shadow—lethal and fast.
But it wasn't enough.
One of the attackers got behind her.
She turned—too slow.
Gun to her head.
Click.
Empty chamber.
He laughed. Raised a blade.
Then his body seized.
He dropped—eyes wide.
Celina stood, stunned.
She hadn't touched him.
But her hand glowed.
Red light pulsed from the symbols on her palm.
Darius ran to her. "What did you do?"
"I don't know."
But the attacker's body had fried from the inside out—like a short-circuited machine.
The Talon Protocol wasn't just data.
It was a weaponized interface.
And it had just activated.
End of Chapter 6
Let me know if you want more romantic tension in Chapter 7 or if we should lean into Celina discovering her powers and preparing to confront Lenora. Either way—we're getting very close to a first major twist + betrayal around Chapters 8–9.