The basement no longer felt like a room — it felt like the center of a battlefield.

Shadows clung to the walls, the air thick with unspoken danger, as Lucian sat in his restraints… no longer smiling, no longer taunting, no longer the ghost who had tormented them for years.

For the first time, Lucian looked small.

Like a king stripped of his throne.

Ares stood over him, breathing hard, fury radiating off his body like heat. Atlas hovered behind him, tense, eyes flicking between ...