Chapter 6: The Hunt
The hunt began before the room had even cleared.
Victor’s voice over the loudspeaker gave orders with the calm of a man who had built an empire on control. Security moved. Doctors were dismissed. Nurses were told to stabilize Noah and forget what they had seen. Celeste tried to speak, but Victor cut her off with a single word.
“Later.”
William stood between his father’s voice and the boy who had saved his son, his face a mask of shock and dawning fury.
“You’re alive,” he said to the ceiling.
“I never died,” Victor replied. “I simply stepped back so the world would stop watching. Horizon Pavilion needed privacy. And you, my son, needed a clean image.”
Ethan stayed behind Walter, small hand gripping the old man’s coat. The blood from his nose had slowed, but the exhaustion in his body was deeper than blood loss. Every time he used the gift, something inside him dimmed. His grandfather had warned him. His mother had warned him. Now the warnings were alive in the room with him.
Walter’s voice was hard. “You used my daughter until she broke. You will not touch her son.”
Victor’s laugh was dry. “The Reed gift is a resource. Your daughter understood that until sentiment clouded her. The boy will be cared for. Studied. Used for the greater good. You can leave, Walter. Or you can stay and watch.”
The door opened.
Security entered.
William stepped forward. “No one touches the boy.”
His father’s voice sharpened. “You would choose a stranger’s child over your own legacy?”
“I would choose the child who brought my son back,” William said. “Over the father who let my wife run experiments on children.”
The room fractured.
Celeste moved toward the door. Walter pulled Ethan tighter. Security hesitated, caught between Victor’s orders and William’s presence. In the bed, Noah made a small sound, the first real cry since he had been brought back.
Ethan felt the pull again—the gift reaching toward the baby, wanting to strengthen the fragile life it had returned. He pushed it down. His nose started bleeding again.
Walter noticed. “Not again. Not here.”
May you like
Victor’s voice filled the room. “Bring the boy to the lower level. Now.”
The hunt had begun.
