Before she could react, he took her hand gently — surprising even himself — and rewrapped it with silent precision. She didn't stop him.
Their hands lingered together for a second too long.
"I've cleaned wounds for soldiers," he murmured. "But never for someone who nearly outran me in a firefight."
Ivy looked up. Her voice was soft now. "That was admiration, Reign?"
He looked down at her. "Observation."
She smirked. "Sure."
The door creaked faintly — Victor again, hesitating in the threshold.
"There's something else," he said. "We found traces of a tracer virus in the war room systems. Someone was trying to lead a digital trail back to your servers. And... Ivy's firewall stopped it."
Lucian looked back at her. A flicker of respect in his cold gaze.
"Looks like you've earned another room in the house," he said.
Ivy rolled her eyes. "I'm not decorating."
But she stayed.
~Sublevel Interrogation Room ~
*Reign Headquarters*
The room was sterile and cold — steel walls, no windows. One flickering bulb above cast harsh light on the traitor tied to the chair in the center. His face was bruised, shirt bloodied, but he still held an arrogant smirk.
Lucian stood across from him, arms folded, silent. Ivy leaned against the far wall, eyes shadowed, her expression unreadable. Victor stood by the door, hands behind his back.
"You have one chance," Lucian said coolly. "Tell me who gave you the orders, and I might let your tongue remain in your mouth."
The mole coughed, spitting blood. "You're good, Reign… but you're too late. Blackwood's already a step ahead. Always has been."
Ivy stepped forward, voice like a knife. "Then why send you to slow us down?"
The mole's eyes shifted to her, and he smiled wider. "Because you're the threat. Not him."
Lucian's brow tightened. "What do you mean?"
The mole chuckled. "You think this is about systems and chips? You think Blackwood cares about Reign's business?" His bloodied mouth curled. "He's scared of her. She's the one thing he can't control anymore."
Ivy's hands clenched behind her back. Lucian noticed.
"Who else is helping him?" Victor asked sharply.
The mole gave a bloody grin. "You won't like it."
Lucian walked up, crouching to eye level. "Try me."
The mole whispered two words.
"Izrael Vale."
The room stilled.
Ivy's heart dropped. Her breath hitched, ever so slightly. "You're lying."
The mole's smile grew. "Oh no, sweetheart. He's alive. And he's working for your father now."
Lucian turned to Ivy, his gaze hardening. "Who is he?"
She didn't answer immediately. Her voice, when it came, was low and sharp. "He was my mentor. My partner… the only person I trusted in Blackwood's program."
Lucian narrowed his eyes. "And?"
She looked away. "He betrayed me. Left me for dead during our last mission. I thought he was gone."
Victor stepped forward. "So he knows how you work. How you think."
Ivy nodded once, tension rippling through her. "And I know exactly how he hunts."
Lucian looked at her a long moment. "Then we hunt him first."
Seven Years Ago — Blackwood Private Training Facility, Underground Sector 9*
The corridors buzzed with surveillance drones. Fluorescent lights cast long, sharp shadows. A younger Ivy — just 17 — moved swiftly through the halls, dressed in sleek tactical black. Her hair was tied back in a tight braid, her eyes bright but calculating. By her side walked *Izrael Vale* — mid-20s, tall, charming, confident. His dark green eyes had a dangerous gleam, and his voice carried the smooth edge of a seasoned manipulator.
"Stay close, Knox," he said, glancing at her with a teasing smirk. "You're smart, but you're not invincible."
Ivy rolled her eyes. "Neither are you, Vale. But you do love acting like it."
He chuckled. "Confidence is a weapon. Just like silence. And poison."
They had been the top two agents in Blackwood's covert unit — trained to infiltrate, spy, eliminate. Izrael had become her mentor, then her partner. For Ivy, who'd grown up isolated under Blackwood's thumb, he was the only person who made the cage feel like something less.
But even then, the signs were there.
He always held back during training simulations.
He asked too many questions about her brother.
He spoke of freedom — but never his own plan to get it.
Their final mission together was a retrieval op in Kyiv — a bio-intel chip that Blackwood desperately wanted. They moved like shadows, Ivy in the lead. But as they reached the safe point, she noticed it: the silence in her comms.
Then came the explosion.
Smoke, sirens. Chaos.
She stumbled out of the wreckage, bloodied and breathless — alone.
Izrael was gone.
She spent weeks locked in an isolation cell after Blackwood accused her of jeopardizing the mission. Her father's only words were: *"You trusted the wrong person. Learn from it."*
She did.
Her heart hardened. She became more precise. More ruthless.
And now... he was alive
There was fire behind her eyes now — but it wasn't rage. It was grief long buried and now stirred. She whispered, more to herself than to Lucian:
"I should've known. He always smiled before pulling the trigger."
Lucian stepped back, observing her in silence. For the first time, Ivy looked like she wasn't in control — like a wound had reopened.
"Then we hunt him," Lucian said quietly.
"No. *I* do." She said rage and hurt with something else flickered through her eyes
He nodded once. "Then I won't stop you.