Xavier POV

“You can’t chase a ghost in daylight, you wait until the dark helps you think like him.”

The tunnels beneath my father’s estate smelled of oil, salt, and old betrayal.

The fire hadn’t reached this far; the walls were still slick with condensation, the concrete echoing every step Luca and I took.

Our flashlights cut thin slices through the dark, bouncing off rusted pipes and broken crates.

The deeper we went, the clearer it became that Charles hadn’t built escape tunnels. ...