ALEX POV
The forest thins as we reach a narrow dirt road, the sky a heavy bruise of clouds above us. Camila walks close beside me , not because she's afraid, but because something is shifting between us. Something fragile. Something dangerous in a different way.
Her mother's letter sits like a weight in my pocket.
A location.
Coordinates.
A final message she wrote while bleeding out.
Camila keeps glancing at me, as though searching for answers in my silence.
Finally, she asks, "How did you know her?"
I breathe in slowly. The truth is tangled, dark.
"She was one of ours."
Camila's steps falter. "My mother… worked with the CIA?"
"She was brilliant. One of the best data cryptographers we ever had."
I pause. "She believed in the Ophidian project. Before it turned into a weapon."
Camila looks away, the wind tugging at her hair. "I don't remember any of that."
"You weren't supposed to."
I keep my voice gentle.
"Your mother erased her involvement, for your safety. She hid her work… in you."
Camila wraps her arms around herself. "I wish I remembered her face."
"You will," I promise. "The truth always finds a way."
We walk a while more, the silence no longer heavy but shared , a quiet understanding forming between us.
When we reach the old truck hidden beneath a collapsed shed, I open the door for her.
"You cold?" I ask.
"A little."
I pause, then slide my jacket off again. She reaches out this time , touches my wrist before I drape it over her shoulders.
"You'll freeze," she whispers.
"I've survived worse."
Her lips part like she wants to say something else , something soft , but she looks away instead. I feel the words anyway.
"We drive at first light," I say. "We'll reach the coordinates before nightfall."
She nods, but she doesn't move away.
Instead… she steps closer.
Her fingers graze my chest , cautious at first, then firmer, as if testing whether I'm real. My breath catches before I can stop it.
"Alex," she whispers, eyes lifting to mine, "I'm not afraid with you."
I cup her cheek gently. "I'll keep you safe. I swear it."
She leans in , almost close enough for a kiss , but stops when the wind shifts sharply.
Her gaze snaps behind me.
"Alex…" she whispers.
I turn.
A man stands at the tree line.
Drenched.
Still.
Watching us through the fog.
A man who should be dead.
A man we buried.
My blood turns to ice.
"Ethan?" Camila breathes.
No.
Not Ethan.
The figure steps forward , and the shadows pull back enough to reveal his face.
Solano.
Alive.
In the flesh.
Calm. Smiling.
Like a ghost deciding to come home.
"Buenas noches, mi niña," he says softly, eyes locked on Camila.
"My favorite little shadow."
She staggers backward, hitting my chest.
I grab her, shielding her behind me instantly.
"Impossible," I growl. My gun is out before I can think. "You're dead."
Solano chuckles, spreading his hands like this is all a pleasant surprise.
"You of all people should know , you can't kill a man who isn't allowed to die."
Camila trembles violently , not from the cold.
From memory.
From trauma.
From recognition.
"You were there," she whispers, voice cracking. "When she, when my mother, "
"Yes," Solano says gently, almost lovingly.
"I trusted her. And she betrayed me… just like you will."
Camila gasps.
He takes one slow step forward.
I raise my gun higher.
"One more step, and I put you down."
Solano smiles wider.
"Alex… her truth is the only thing that kept me alive. You thought I was after her body?"
His eyes gleam.
"No. I'm after her memories."
Camila clutches my shirt.
"I don't remember anything," she whispers.
Solano tilts his head with a predator's patience.
"Not yet."
His voice softens to a whisper I wish I could unhear.
"But you will. And when you do… you'll come back to me."
Camila's knees buckle.
I catch her.
Solano vanishes into the trees , swift as smoke.
His final words carried on the wind:
"Meet me where she died.
Or I'll come for what's mine."
CAMILA POV
My breath won't come.
It won't come.
The world tilts and blurs, the trees, the fog, Alex's face. Everything melts into one spinning nightmare.
"Camila, hey, look at me," Alex says, lifting my face with both hands.
But all I can see is Solano's smile.
All I can hear is his voice.
All I can feel is the cold hand of memory unclenching inside me.
"What did he mean?" I choke out. "Alex… what did he mean?"
Alex doesn't answer right away.
His silence is worse than truth.
"Tell me," I whisper, voice breaking. "Tell me what he wants."
He pulls me against him, one hand on the back of my head, holding me like I'm shattering.
"He wants everything," Alex says quietly. "Including the part of you that doesn't remember him."
I close my eyes.
A voice from my childhood whispers through the dark corners of my memory…
"Run to the coast. If something happens to me… run."
"My mother," I whisper. "She… she told me to run. She, she knew."
Alex gently strokes my back. "Camila, listen to me. We'll face this together. You're not going back to him. Not now. Not ever."
I grip his shoulders, desperate. "Promise me."
He lifts my chin, forcing me to meet his eyes.
"I don't make promises," he says.
"But I'm making one now."
His forehead touches mine.
"I won't let him touch you.
I won't let him take you.
And I sure as hell won't let him win."
My tears spill over.
But through the storm of fear , something else rises.
Resolve.
"He won't win," I whisper. "Not this time."
Alex's hand slides to my cheek , gentle, protective, grounding.
"Then we go north," he says. "To where it all began."
"To where she died," I say.
He nods.
"To where she left the truth, inside you."
Far up the coast, in an abandoned facility with rusted steel doors and flickering lights…
Solano steps through a shadowed corridor and places his hand on a biometric scanner.
The door slides open with a hiss.
Inside, a large screen glows to life.
A woman's recorded voice plays.
Soft. Familiar.
Camila's mother.
"Project Ophidian: Activation Sequence."
Solano smiles.
"Let the girl remember."