Dawn.
The Nest reeks of disinfectant, gun oil, and exhaustion. Selene sits on the edge of an old cot, shoulder stitched with Micah's trembling hands.
Jess curls up nearby — a blanket wrapped tight, eyes swollen from crying but locked on Selene with an intensity no bullet could pierce.
Ward stands in the corner — arms crossed, jaw clenched so tight his teeth squeak.
For the first time since her father's murder, Selene Arlen has no mask between her and the two people who could destroy her with a single word.
---
The Deal
Jess breaks the silence first — voice hoarse.
> "I should hate you. I should be calling the cops. But you saved me — and you've been saving everyone else for years, haven't you?"
Selene doesn't answer. Her eyes are dead glass.
Ward steps forward — drops his badge on the battered desk between them.
> "If you think I'm doing this because I approve, don't. If this leaks — if any more bodies drop — I'll drag you in myself."
He pauses, softer than he wants to be:
"But until then… I'm not helping them cage the only predator who scares these monsters back underground."
Jess wipes her eyes. She stands. She hugs Selene like they're still just coworkers in the freezer room, giggling about bad coffee and worse dates.
> "You save them, Selene. We'll save you."
---
The Breakup
Later.
Her apartment — trashed by Ward's search. Evan sits on the couch, confusion and anger hanging in the stale air.
He's not stupid. He's known something was rotting under their pillow talk — the bruises, the missed calls, the nights she came home smelling like rain and blood.
> "Who are you really, Selene?"
Her eyes drop to the cracked floorboards. She wants to say I love you. Wants to say Stay. But she can't keep dragging him into the grave she digs every night.
So she lies — the sharpest kindness she has left.
> "Someone you're better off forgetting."
He storms out. Slams the door so hard the frame splinters. She doesn't move until Micah's voice breaks the silence in her ear — quiet, no jokes this time.
> "Goodbye's always suck worse when they're the right thing."
---
King Crow's Next Blade
Miles away — somewhere warm, somewhere gilded in candlelight and vice — King Crow sits across from a man who doesn't quite look human in the right light.
A towering figure, muscle coiled under clean black leathers, tattoos crawling up his throat — every inch a blade forged to hunt myths.
His name is Moloch Horn — The Bull King — a brute assassin once thought too unstable to control. Now Crow needs unstable.
> Crow's voice drips honey and venom:
"The Raven is mortal. She bleeds. Make her drown in it."
Moloch's grin splits his scarred lips. He cracks his knuckles — a sound like tomb doors opening.
> "I break wings. I break bones. City watches."
Crow slides a folder across the bar — grainy photos, Selene's masked face, rooftops, alley corpses.
> "She's good. Almost perfect."
Moloch flicks through them. Doesn't blink.
"Almost ain't enough."
---
Micah's Truth
Back at The Nest, Micah flips through screens — tracking rumors that don't add up. King Crow's deals aren't just weapons or drugs anymore. The Flock is flooding clinics with a new designer high. Bribing city hall. Fixing elections. Turning entire blocks into test labs for something bigger — subservience. A city addicted to fear and the poisons that feed it.
> "They're not just thugs anymore, Selene. They're farmers. And we're the livestock."
Selene flexes her shoulder. Pain flares — but she barely feels it.
> "Then we burn their fields."
Micah tries to smile. It cracks around the edges.
> "Sure. Let's burn everything. But first… maybe we don't die next week."
---
The Closing Shadow
Outside, Ward watches The Nest's flickering windows. A cigarette burns low between his fingers.
He wants to arrest her. Wants to save her. Wants to drag the whole city to confession. But the line between cop and criminal is thinner than the wings she wears.
He whispers to the storm: "Don't make me be the one to end you, Raven."
---
END OF CHAPTER ELEVEN