The sky above Valerius Manor was too clear.
No storms.
No wind.
No warnings.
That was what unsettled Cassian the most.
Elara stood at the far balcony, staring at the horizon like she was waiting for something to rise from it. The moonlight caught in her hair, silvering it.
She looked stronger.
Colder.
Different.
The shift in her blood had settled.
And Cassian felt it — the way predators feel another predator step onto their territory.
Behind him, the manor doors closed softly.
Adrian's presence vanished down the corridor.
They were alone.
Good.
Cassian stepped onto the balcony.
"Elara."
She didn't turn. "You've been avoiding me."
He didn't deny it.
"I needed to confirm something."
Her voice was quiet. "About me?"
"About the Watcher."
That made her turn.
Sharp.
Still.
Waiting.
Cassian leaned his forearms against the balcony railing, staring at the dark forest below.
"You remember the symbol burned into the hybrid children?" he asked.
Her jaw tightened.
The eye.
The one carved into flesh.
"Yes."
"It wasn't just a faction mark."
Silence.
Then—
"What are you saying?"
Cassian exhaled slowly.
"I know who the Watcher is."
The air between them changed.
The forest below felt like it was listening.
Elara's voice dropped. "You said no one knew."
"I lied."
She didn't look surprised.
That hurt more than if she had.
Cassian finally looked at her.
"You asked me once," he said softly, "why I knew how to bypass the Watcher's sigils. Why his traps don't work on me."
She remembered.
He saw it in her eyes.
"You said it was experience."
"It wasn't."
A beat.
Then—
"Because I helped build them."
Silence.
Heavy.
Thick.
Elara stared at him as if he had just struck her.
"No."
"Yes."
Her voice sharpened. "You were the Watcher?"
"No."
But his answer wasn't clean enough.
She stepped back.
"You built his system."
"I built the containment protocols."
"For the hybrid children."
"Yes."
Her breath hitched.
And for the first time since the transformation, her composure cracked.
"You were part of it?"
His throat tightened.
"Yes."
The word fell like a blade.
The wind finally stirred.
Elara's eyes darkened.
"You told me you were fighting them."
"I am."
"After helping them torture children?"
The accusation burned.
He didn't flinch.
"I was twenty-three," he said quietly. "Brilliant. Arrogant. Convinced I could control monsters."
Her voice was ice. "And who was the monster, Cassian?"
He didn't answer immediately.
Because he knew the truth.
He had been.
Fifteen Years Ago
Cassian Vale was a prodigy.
Not just in combat.
In blood theory.
Genetic structuring.
Supernatural integration.
The Watcher recruited him personally.
Not as a soldier.
As a designer.
The Watcher had a vision:
Hybrid soldiers.
Creatures capable of walking in sunlight.
Immune to silver.
Untraceable by scent.
Not wild beasts.
Weapons.
Cassian built the first viable containment grid.
He designed the neural dampening seals.
He created the sigil architecture burned into the spines of the early test subjects.
He told himself it was research.
Progress.
Necessary sacrifice.
Until he saw the first child survive.
Barely.
A girl with silver in her veins.
Eyes too old for her small body.
She didn't cry.
She didn't scream.
She just watched him.
The way prey watches the hunter.
And he understood.
She would never forgive him.
He walked away three months later.
Burned his notes.
Faked his death.
Joined Adrian's rebellion.
But the damage was done.
The Watcher had kept building.
Refining.
Perfecting.
Using Cassian's foundation.
Present
Elara's hands were trembling.
"Did you know it was me?"
Her voice was barely sound.
"When you first saw me — did you know?"
Cassian shook his head slowly.
"No."
That part was true.
"When did you find out?"
He met her eyes.
"In the tunnels."
"When you saw the scar."
Her hand moved instinctively to the faint ridge along her spine.
The containment seal.
Modified.
Altered.
But still there.
"You recognized your own work."
His silence was confirmation.
She stepped back again.
As if distance could undo history.
"You branded me."
"No."
"Yes."
Her voice broke.
"You built the cage they locked me in."
"I built the cage that kept you alive."
The words slipped out before he could stop them.
And they were true.
Elara froze.
"What?"
Cassian stepped closer.
"Your body survived the early hybrid trials because of the dampening seal."
Her breath stilled.
"The other children didn't have it."
Her eyes widened.
"Don't."
"They burned out. Imploded. Turned feral."
"Stop."
"You didn't."
She was shaking now.
Not with fear.
With fury.
"So I should thank you?"
"No."
He didn't want gratitude.
He wanted absolution.
And he didn't deserve it.
"I am the reason the Watcher knew hybrids could survive," he said quietly.
"You proved the concept."
"Yes."
Her voice dropped to something lethal.
"Then you're the reason they kept experimenting."
The truth hung between them.
Cassian didn't deny it.
Because he couldn't.
A slow clap echoed from the corridor.
Both of them turned.
Adrian leaned in the doorway.
Watching.
Listening.
"How long were you planning to tell her?" Adrian asked calmly.
Cassian's jaw tightened. "It wasn't your secret to reveal."
"No," Adrian agreed softly. "It was yours."
Elara looked between them.
"You knew?"
Adrian didn't look ashamed.
"I knew he worked for the Watcher once."
She laughed once.
Broken.
"You both thought I should just… what? Bond with him? Trust him?"
"Elara," Cassian started—
"Did you ever intend to tell me?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"When I had proof the Watcher was still using my designs."
Her expression turned deadly quiet.
"And now?"
"He is."
The words cut the air.
Adrian straightened.
"What did you find?"
Cassian's eyes never left Elara.
"The third faction isn't independent."
Silence.
"They're using my original hybrid blueprints."
Elara's pulse spiked.
"Kael."
"Yes."
Her mind raced.
Kael.
Seraphine.
The soldiers in the forest.
The controlled ones.
Not feral.
Disciplined.
Engineered.
"The Watcher isn't leading the third faction," Cassian said quietly.
"He's funding it."
The realization crashed through her.
Kael wasn't a rogue visionary.
He was a continuation.
An evolution.
Using Cassian's early work.
And improving it.
"Seraphine," Elara whispered.
Cassian's eyes sharpened.
"What about her?"
"She knew."
"About?"
"Me."
The memory surfaced.
Seraphine's calm gaze.
Her almost clinical curiosity.
"You're not a mistake," Seraphine had said.
"You're a prototype."
Elara's stomach twisted.
"She wasn't surprised I survived."
Cassian's voice turned cold.
"Because they've done it again."
Adrian stepped forward.
"How many?"
Cassian's answer was soft.
"More than before."
The air turned heavy.
And then—
A scream tore through the forest.
All three of them froze.
It wasn't human.
It wasn't fully monstrous either.
It was controlled agony.
Engineered.
Elara's eyes flashed silver.
"They're close."
Adrian moved first.
"War room. Now."
But Cassian caught Elara's wrist.
She jerked free instantly.
"Don't touch me."
The words weren't loud.
But they cut deeper than anything she'd said.
"I never meant for you to be part of it," he said.
She looked at him.
And in her eyes was something worse than hatred.
Disappointment.
"You don't get to decide what I was meant for," she said quietly.
Then she walked away.
Cassian stood alone on the balcony.
The forest screamed again.
And somewhere beyond the tree line—
A new sigil burned to life.
Deep in the Forest
Kael watched the hybrid kneel.
Its spine glowed faintly.
The mark identical to Cassian's early design.
Improved.
Refined.
"Phase three," Kael murmured.
Seraphine stood beside him.
"The original architect revealed himself."
Kael's lips curved.
"Good."
The hybrid's eyes snapped open.
Clear.
Focused.
Obedient.
Not feral.
Not broken.
Perfect.
"And the girl?" Seraphine asked.
Kael's gaze shifted toward the distant manor lights.
"She'll come."
"How are you so certain?"
He smiled faintly.
"Because the Watcher just forced her to choose."
Seraphine tilted her head.
"And if she chooses Cassian?"
Kael's voice turned cold.
"She won't."
Back at the Manor
Elara stood alone in the war room.
Maps spread.
Markers placed.
But her mind was somewhere else.
A lab.
Cold floors.
Needles.
Hands holding her down.
And a young man with brilliant eyes watching her like she was data.
She hadn't remembered his face.
Until now.
And that was the most horrifying part.
He hadn't looked cruel.
He had looked fascinated.
Her hand trembled.
The silver under her skin flickered violently.
She wasn't a mistake.
She wasn't an accident.
She was proof of concept.
A foundation.
A success.
Tears burned — but didn't fall.
Behind her, the door opened quietly.
She didn't turn.
"Leave."
It wasn't Adrian.
It wasn't Cassian.
It was someone else.
A voice she hadn't heard in years.
"You always were the strongest," it said softly.
Elara's blood went ice cold.
She turned slowly.
Standing in the doorway—
A woman with silver-streaked hair.
A scar along her spine.
The same containment seal.
Older.
Alive.
And smiling faintly.
"Elara."
Her voice was almost gentle.
"You survived."
Elara's breath stopped.
"You're dead."
The woman tilted her head.
"No."
A pause.
"I was promoted."
The lights flickered.
And behind her—
The Watcher stepped into view.
Not masked.
Not hidden.
Flesh and bone.
Human.
Familiar.
Adrian's father.
Elara's world shattered.
Cassian burst into the room—
Too late.
The Watcher smiled at him.
"You built something extraordinary, Cassian."
His gaze shifted to Elara.
"And I'd like her back."
END OF CHAPTER 8