The banging came again. Violent this time. Metal doors trembled beneath the impact hard enough to rattle the glass walls around the server room.
My pulse slammed against my ribs. "Kael—"
"Quiet." The word came sharp enough to cut. He moved instantly, fingers flying across the keyboard while red emergency lights bled across his face in uneven flashes.
Every screen in the lab still displayed the same message:
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED.
And beneath it—
VEIL PROTOCOL INITIATED.
"What does that mean?" I whispered. Kael ignored me completely. Outside the sealed doors, voices echoed faintly through the hallway.
Male voices. Security.
One of them shouted, "Mercer!" Kael swore under his breath.
wtf but Interesting.
Not Mr. Mercer. Not student ID. Just Mercer.
As if they're Familiar. That meant history.
He yanked the flash drive from the port violently. The screens glitched instantly. Most of the Project Veil files vanished—
except one. A student profile frozen at the center monitor.
NOAH ELLERY
BEHAVIORAL RISK STATUS: ACTIVE
SURVEILLANCE LEVEL: PRIORITY TWO
Below it:
SUBJECT DISPLAYING SIGNS OF MEMORY INSTABILITY.
My stomach twisted. "What the hell is memory instability?"
Kael stepped in front of the monitor before I could read further. Too late. I'd already seen enough.
Another slam shook the lab doors. "OPEN THE DOOR NOW!" someone barked outside.
Kael looked toward the entrance. Then toward me. Decision-making flashed rapidly behind his eyes.
Fast. Precise. Dangerously calm.
"We need to move."
"The doors are locked."
"There's another exit." Of course there was.
Every terrifying person somehow knew secret exits. Kael grabbed my wrist before I could react and pulled me across the darkened lab toward the back server corridor. His hand was warm. Strong. Distracting. Annoying timing for my nervous system, honestly.
Red emergency lights flickered overhead as we moved between rows of humming servers. Somewhere behind us, metal screeched violently.
The main doors were being forced open. "Kael," I hissed, trying to keep up, "what is Project Veil?"
"No time."
"You literally dragged me into a secret underground panic room. I think it's time." He stopped suddenly beside a plain black wall.
At first glance it looked solid. Then he pressed two fingers against a hidden panel. A section slid open quietly. My jaw dropped slightly.
"You've got to be kidding me."
"You complain a lot for someone trespassing in restricted facilities."
"That's my stress response." Another crash echoed behind us. Closer now.
Kael shoved me through the hidden doorway first before slipping inside and sealing it behind us. Darkness swallowed everything instantly. Then dim backup lights flickered on one by one.
Concrete walls. Narrow passageway. Old pipes running overhead.
The air smelled damp and stale, like this tunnel hadn't belonged on any official blueprint for years.
I stared at him. "There are underground tunnels?"
"Welcome to Ravenwell."
"You say things like this is normal."
"For this university?" His laugh came out hollow. "This is one of the less disturbing discoveries."
The tunnel stretched ahead beneath the campus. Far above us, thunder rolled through the storm. For a moment neither of us moved. Then I noticed something strange.
Kael looked shaken. Not outwardly. Most people wouldn't notice. But his breathing was slightly uneven now. His shoulders too tense. One hand still clenched tightly around the flash drive. Fear. Real fear.
And suddenly that frightened me more than the alarms had, "Kael."
Silence.
"Talk to me." His jaw tightened.
"You should've never gotten involved."
"That's becoming everybody's favorite sentence."
"I mean it."
"So do I." I stepped closer. "Noah was flagged in that file. What does that mean?"
Kael looked away briefly. Mistake again. Tiny human cracks kept slipping through his control.
"Project Veil monitors students."
"Monitors how?"
No answer.
"Kael." His eyes met mine again.
"Psychological evaluations. Behavioral tracking. Emotional profiling." His voice stayed low and controlled, but anger simmered underneath every word. "The university claims it's for student wellness."
Claims. Cold spread slowly through my chest.
"And Noah?" Kael's expression darkened instantly.
"He found something he wasn't supposed to."
"Which was?"
"I don't know." Lie.
Not complete lie. But partial. I could feel it.
"You're hiding things."
"Yes."
The blunt honesty caught me off guard. "At least you admit it."
"You think honesty makes people safe?" His voice sharpened suddenly. "At Ravenwell, truth gets people buried."
Silence settled heavily between us. Then quietly, before I could stop myself, "You cared about him."
Kael went still. For one second, all the sharpness disappeared from his face. What remained underneath looked exhausted. Ruined.
"Noah was my best friend," he said softly.
And there it was.
Not suspicion. Not mystery. Grief. Real grief. My chest tightened painfully. Because suddenly the image of him on the bridge changed slightly in my mind. Not a killer. Someone desperate. Kael leaned back against the concrete wall, rubbing a hand across his face briefly.
"I spent three weeks trying to figure out what happened to him," he muttered. "Then three days trying to stop him from doing something stupid."
"The bridge." His eyes lifted toward me instantly.
"He was terrified," I continued quietly. "He kept saying they knew."
Kael stared at me for a long moment.
Then, "He remembered something." The tunnel suddenly felt colder.
"What kind of something?"
"That's the problem." His jaw tightened. "I don't think Noah fully knew himself."
Before I could ask more a sound echoed faintly through the tunnel.
Footsteps.
Both of us froze instantly.
Not from behind.
Ahead.
Someone else was down here.
Kael moved in front of me automatically.
Protective.
The realization hit me hard enough to irritate me immediately. A shadow appeared at the far end of the tunnel beneath flickering lights. Tall figure. Hooded. Motionless. The same build as the figure I'd seen reflected on the bridge window. My pulse spiked violently.
"That's them," I whispered. Kael's posture sharpened instantly. The figure lifted one gloved hand slowly. Then tossed something across the tunnel floor toward us.
A folder.
Before either of us could react, the tunnel lights flickered violently.
Once. Twice. And the figure vanished into darkness.
Impossible.
"What the hell—"
Kael grabbed the folder first. Inside sat dozens of printed photographs. Students. Different years. Different departments.
Every single photo stamped with the same symbol in red ink: VEIL.
Then I saw Noah.
His photograph had one additional word written across it.
FAILED.
A cold chill crawled down my spine.
Because beneath Noah's picture
was mine.
And unlike Noah's, my file was still blank.