Chapter 881
“It’s Caleb,” Alistair said, watching the feed. “And Celeste. But no Patriarch. He must have fled once his distraction role was played out.”
“He sent the children to do the dirty work,” Lucian muttered.
Skye and Alistair positioned themselves on the catwalk above the main turbine room and watched as Caleb and Celeste entered below. Celeste was frantic, limping. Caleb supported her with one arm, his gun drawn with the other.
“Where is it?” Celeste screamed at the empty console. “The signal said it was active!”
“It’s a ghost signal, Celeste,” Skye’s voice boomed over the PA system.
Celeste spun and fired blindly into the rafters. “Come out!”
“Surrender,” Alistair called down. “The building is surrounded.”
Dі𝘀𝘤𝗈𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘩𝗂𝖽de𝗻 𝗴е𝘮ѕ 𝗈n g𝘢𝗹𝗇𝘰𝘃𝗲𝗅ѕ.co𝗺
“Never!” Caleb sprinted to the manual override valve. “If we can’t have it, no one can!” He threw his weight into turning the wheel.
“He’s going to flood the chamber!” Julian yelled over comms. “Stop him!”
Alistair fired. The shot struck the wheel in a shower of sparks.
Caleb didn’t stop. He was beyond reason.
Skye watched Celeste standing there, watching Caleb destroy himself for her. In that moment, something unexpected moved through her — not forgiveness, but pity.
“Celeste!” Skye shouted. “He’s going to kill you both! Look at the pressure gauge!”
The needle was buried in the red. The pipes groaned around them, steam venting from the joints in sharp, hissing bursts.
Celeste looked up. She saw it.
“Caleb, stop!” Celeste screamed.
Caleb froze. He turned to look at her, something lost breaking through the madness in his eyes. “But… the Patriarch said —”
“I don’t care what he said!” Celeste cried. “I don’t want to drown!”
Caleb released the wheel.
In that moment of hesitation, Felix and the tactical team breached the doors.
“On the ground! Now!”
Caleb dropped his gun and fell to his knees, hands laced behind his head.
Celeste remained standing, defiant to the last. She smoothed her dress with deliberate composure.
“Don’t touch me,” she hissed as Felix moved to cuff her. “I am a Kensington.”
“Not anymore,” Lucian said, stepping out of the shadows. He looked at her with eyes stripped of everything warm. “You’re nothing.”
“Where is Victoria?” Alistair demanded, seizing Celeste by the arm.
Celeste smirked. “Ask Caleb. He’s the one who hid her.”
The interrogation room was stark white.
Caleb sat chained to the table, not saying a word, his eyes fixed on the two-way mirror as though he could see straight through it.
Skye stood on the other side with Alistair.
“He won’t break,” Alistair said. “He’s conditioned. Pain means nothing to him.”
“He doesn’t care about pain,” Skye said. “He cares about her.”
She walked into the room and sat down opposite Caleb.
“Celeste is in the next cell,” Skye said quietly.
Caleb’s head snapped up. “Is she hurt?”
“Not yet,” Skye said. “But the federal agents are on their way. They’re going to take her to a black site, Caleb. You know what happens there. She’s fragile. She won’t survive a week.”
Caleb pulled against his chains. “Let her go. Take me instead.”
“I can’t,” Skye said. “Unless —”
“Unless what?”