ARIA'S POV
I spun around, heart hammering, as footsteps crunched through dead leaves behind us.
Kael moved in front of me instantly, his body tense and ready to fight. The moonlight barely filtered through the trees, making everything look like moving shadows.
"Who's there?" Kael called out, his voice sharp with authority.
A figure stepped into the small clearing—small, pink-haired, holding her phone's flashlight like a weapon.
"Luna," Kael breathed, relaxing slightly. "What are you doing here?"
"Following you, obviously." Luna Park crossed her arms, her expression fierce despite being half Kael's size. "You two are the loudest 'secret investigators' I've ever seen. Did you really think no one would notice you running into the forest at midnight?"
My cheeks burned with embarrassment. So much for being careful.
"How long have you been listening?" Kael demanded.
"Long enough to know your friend Maya got kidnapped." Luna's expression softened slightly when she looked at me. "And long enough to know you're not actually Asher Sinclair. You're his sister. Aria."
I opened my mouth to deny it, but what was the point? Everyone seemed to see through my disguise instantly.
"Are you going to report me?" I asked quietly.
"Report you?" Luna laughed bitterly. "Why would I do that? I hate this place. I hate Cross and Kane and everyone who thinks they can decide who's 'worthy' of living." She stepped closer, and I saw tears glinting in her eyes. "My girlfriend disappeared six months ago. The Academy said she transferred. But I know she didn't. She would never leave without telling me."
"Sage Martinez," Kael said softly. "I'm sorry, Luna. I didn't know—"
"You got her expelled!" Luna snapped. "You reported her for cheating, and two weeks later she was gone. So yeah, I blamed you. I hated you."
"I didn't mean for her to disappear," Kael said, his voice tight with guilt. "I thought she'd just get detention. I didn't know about the Legacy Program then. I didn't know they were killing people."
Luna was quiet for a long moment. Then she wiped her eyes roughly and pulled out her phone. "Sage's name is on your timeline. Number twenty-one. Red flag in Kane's database. 'Unsuitable for continuation.'"
"You hacked Kane's files?" I asked, impressed despite everything.
"I've been hacking everything in this hellhole for months," Luna said. "But I could never find proof of what they were actually doing. Just flags and codes and encrypted files I couldn't break." She looked between us. "But if you're planning to break into Kane's office and steal physical evidence, then I'm in. I'll help however I can."
Relief flooded through me. "Thank you—"
"Don't thank me yet." Luna's expression was grim. "We've got less than twenty-four hours to pull off a break-in that should take weeks of planning. And if we fail, your friend dies. So here's what we're going to do."
She pulled up a blueprint on her phone—a detailed layout of Kane's office building.
"I've been mapping security for months," Luna explained. "Kane's office is on the third floor, east wing. Biometric locks on the door—fingerprint and retinal scan. Security cameras every twenty feet. Motion sensors in the hallway after midnight."
"So it's impossible," I said, my hope crumbling.
"It's difficult," Luna corrected. "But not impossible. We need three things: a copy of Kane's fingerprint, a way to trick the retinal scanner, and a distraction big enough to pull security away from that wing."
"How do we get Kane's fingerprint?" Kael asked.
"He drinks coffee at the campus café every morning at seven. Same table, same mug. I lift the mug after he leaves, dust it for prints, and create a gel mold. Easy."
"And the retinal scanner?" I pressed.
Luna grinned wickedly. "That's harder. But Kane wears glasses. If we can get those glasses, I can extract the prescription and create contact lenses that mimic his eye pattern. It'll fool the scanner long enough to get us through the door."
"That's insane," Kael said. "We'd need to steal his glasses without him noticing—"
"Leave that to me," Luna interrupted. "I've got a plan. The real problem is the distraction. We need something big. Something that'll send security running to the other side of campus while we're breaking into Kane's office."
An idea sparked in my mind. Dangerous. Reckless. Exactly what Asher would do.
"What if we trigger the fire alarm in the main building?" I suggested. "Not a real fire—just enough smoke to make the sensors go off. Security would have to respond. Everyone would evacuate."
Luna's eyes lit up. "That could work. But we'd need someone to set it off while we're breaking in. Someone we trust completely."
"Marcus Vale," Kael said suddenly. "He's my friend. Alpha from a military pack. He owes me a favor, and he hates Cross as much as we do."
"Can we trust him not to turn us in?" I asked.
"With my life," Kael said firmly. "Marcus is loyal. And if I tell him what's really happening here, he'll help."
Luna nodded. "Okay. So here's the plan. Tomorrow morning, I steal Kane's coffee mug and glasses. By noon, I'll have the fingerprint mold and fake contacts ready. At midnight tomorrow, Marcus triggers the fire alarm. Security evacuates everyone. We use the chaos to break into Kane's office, grab the files, and get out before anyone realizes what happened."
"What about Maya?" I asked, my voice cracking. "We only have twenty-four hours. If we wait until tomorrow night—"
"We don't have a choice," Kael said gently. "We need daylight to steal Kane's biometrics. We need time to prepare. If we rush this and fail, Maya dies anyway."
He was right. I hated it, but he was right.
"Fine," I whispered. "We move tomorrow night."
Luna checked her phone and cursed. "We need to get back to campus. Curfew was twenty minutes ago. If we're caught outside after midnight, we'll get flagged."
We started back through the forest, moving quickly but carefully. My mind raced with everything that could go wrong. The fingerprint mold might not work. The fake contacts might fail. Security might catch us. Maya might already be—
No. I couldn't think like that.
We were almost at the forest edge when Kael suddenly grabbed my arm, pulling me behind a tree. Luna ducked behind another trunk.
"What—" I started, but Kael pressed his hand over my mouth.
Two figures stood in the clearing ahead, silhouetted against the campus lights. They were talking in low voices, but the wind carried their words to us.
"—found the shed. Someone's been collecting evidence."
My blood turned to ice. The shed. Kael's investigation headquarters.
"Destroy everything," the second figure said. I recognized that voice. Professor Roman Kane. "And find out who's been snooping around. Check the security footage. I want names by morning."
"What about the girl? The one pretending to be Sinclair?"
"She's a loose end. Just like her brother was." Kane's voice was cold, emotionless. "The Martinez girl is bait. When Aria Sinclair tries to save her friend, we'll eliminate them both. Clean and simple."
Luna's hand flew to her mouth, muffling a gasp. Sage. They were talking about Sage.
"And if the Ashford boy interferes?" the first figure asked.
"Then he joins his sister in the ground," Kane said casually. "The Ashfords have been a problem for too long. It's time to clean house."
They walked away toward campus, their footsteps fading into the night.
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. They knew about the shed. They knew about me. They were using Maya as bait to kill us all.
And they'd killed Kael's sister. On purpose. Not an accident. Murder.
Kael's face was pale with shock and rage. Luna was crying silently.
"We can't wait until tomorrow," I whispered. "They're going to find your evidence shed. They'll destroy everything. We'll have nothing."
"Then we move tonight," Luna said, wiping her tears. "Right now. We break into Kane's office without the biometrics and pray we can hack the lock somehow."
"That's suicide," Kael argued. "We're not prepared—"
"We're out of time!" I hissed. "Maya is bait. They're waiting for us to try to save her so they can kill us. Our only chance is to get that evidence NOW and expose them before they can make their move."
Kael looked torn between protecting me and knowing I was right.
"Marcus is already on campus," he said finally. "I'll text him to trigger the fire alarm in ten minutes. Luna, can you hack the office door lock without the biometrics?"
"I can try," Luna said. "But it might take time. And if I trip the alarm—"
"Then we run," I finished. "But we're not leaving without those files."
We ran back toward campus, keeping to the shadows. My heart pounded so hard I thought it might explode. This was insane. We were three students with no real plan, going up against murderers who'd killed dozens of people.
But Maya's scream echoed in my memory. Asher's bloody jacket burned in my mind.
We reached Kane's building just as the fire alarm started blaring across campus. Perfect timing.
Students poured out of dorms in their pajamas. Security guards ran toward the main building where smoke was starting to pour from a second-floor window. Marcus had come through.
"Now," Kael said.
We slipped through Kane's building's side entrance while everyone else evacuated. The hallways were empty, eerie with flashing emergency lights.
We took the stairs two at a time. Third floor. East wing.
Kane's office door gleamed at the end of the hallway—black wood with a silver nameplate and a high-tech biometric scanner.
Luna pulled out her laptop and connected it to the scanner with a cable. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, code scrolling too fast to read.
"Come on, come on," she muttered.
The alarm blared. Footsteps thundered somewhere below us. We were running out of time.
"Got it!" Luna gasped.
The lock clicked open.
We burst into Kane's office—and froze.
The room was completely empty. No desk. No files. No computers. Nothing but bare walls and an envelope sitting in the center of the floor.
Kael picked it up with shaking hands and read the note inside aloud:
"Did you really think we wouldn't be watching? You've failed. Maya dies at dawn. And so do you. —Cross"
Taped to the bottom of the note was a photo.
Of Asher.
Alive.
Chained to a wall in a dark basement, blood running down his face, eyes full of terror.
My brother was still alive.