sealed with a lie

💨Episode 11: The Fire They Lit💨

Smoke still clung to the hallways like a bad memory. Damon held Aria's trembling body as Luca checked Victor's pulse.

"Gone," Luca confirmed. "But we've got to move. Backup will be here in minutes."

Aria forced herself upright. "Leo's still alive."

Damon helped her to her feet, blood on his hands—not his, not hers, but a symbol of the storm they had walked through together.

"I'm not leaving until I find him," Damon said.

Luca scowled. "This place is wired. We stay longer, we all die."

Aria grabbed a nearby weapon from a fallen guard. "Then we find him fast."

---

They stormed through stone corridors and broken doors. The castle roared with the sound of helicopters approaching.

In the courtyard, guards scrambled. But Damon didn't care. He moved like a man possessed.

Then he saw him.

Leo.

Running toward the lower tunnels, blood trailing behind him.

"Go!" Damon shouted.

He followed, leaving Luca and Aria to cover their escape.

The tunnels were narrow, lit by flickering emergency lights. Leo's shadow moved just ahead.

Damon caught up, tackled him to the ground.

Punches flew. Knives flashed.

"You should've stayed dead!" Damon roared.

"You should've stayed loyal!" Leo hissed.

Blood stained the ground.

---

Upstairs, Aria and Luca reached the extraction point. A black chopper hovered, rope ladder swinging.

"Where's Damon?" Luca yelled.

Aria stared back at the smoke. "He's not done."

She turned to re-enter, but Luca grabbed her arm. "If we don't leave now, they'll shoot this whole place down."

"I'm not leaving without him."

And she disappeared into the fire.

---

Damon pinned Leo against a wall, fist raised.

"Victor's gone. It's over."

Leo bled from his lip. "Victor was only the beginning."

"What do you mean?"

Leo coughed, smiling through the pain. "You killed a pawn. The king is still watching."

Suddenly, the wall behind them exploded. Debris rained down. Damon was thrown back.

Leo vanished into smoke once more.

---

Aria found Damon in the rubble. Bloodied, but breathing.

"We have to go," she said. "Now."

This time, he didn't argue.

---

The helicopter lifted off just as missiles rained on the castle. Fire engulfed it, turning centuries of secrets to ash.

Damon clutched Aria's hand.

"We survived."

"For now," she whispered.

---

Three days later, in a secure apartment in Berlin, Aria stood at the window.

Her reflection showed more than bruises—it showed a new version of herself.

"You think he's really dead?" she asked.

Damon stepped beside her, arm wrapping around her waist. "No. But it doesn't matter. We're ready now."

She leaned into him.

💨Episode 12: Broken Promises and Black Seals💨

Berlin's winter chill snuck through the old apartment's brick walls. Aria sat cross-legged on the couch, eyes fixed on the sealed black folder with the strange ♛ symbol. Damon stood at the window, his phone pressed to his ear.

"No traces of Leo," he muttered. "He vanished. Again."

Luca's voice crackled on the other end. "You're not dealing with a man anymore. You're dealing with a legacy."

Damon ended the call and turned to Aria. "He's gone. But he left this for us to find."

Aria opened the folder. Inside were photos—of her. In high school. At university. Even at her mother's funeral.

Her throat tightened. "He's been watching me for years."

"And that symbol..." Damon whispered, pointing to the wax stamp. "It's not Leo's. It's older."

---

They contacted Luca again. Within hours, a package arrived. Inside was a flash drive.

When they opened it, a video played. Grainy. A boardroom of men in shadows. At the center: Victor Vale.

But the man speaking wasn't him.

"I am Constantine Vale. The true heir of the Council. The throne was never his to sit on."

Aria's stomach dropped. "Victor had a brother?"

Damon clenched his fists. "Or a son."

The video continued.

"The bloodline cannot be diluted. The wife of Damon Reed must die. She threatens the legacy."

Aria stared, numb. "They want me dead because of who I married?"

Damon's jaw tightened. "No. Because of who you are."

---

Later that night, Aria stood under the shower, the water masking her tears. The woman she was six months ago wouldn't recognize the woman she'd become.

She walked out wrapped in a towel. Damon was waiting in bed, shirtless, eyes heavy with worry.

"You okay?" he asked.

"No," she whispered. "But I'm still here."

He reached for her. "Then so am I."

Their kiss was slow. Healing. A soft fire that reminded them they still had each other.

---

Morning came with more bad news. Luca arrived with new intel.

"There's a safehouse in Zurich tied to the Council. Hidden under a biotech company. And guess who owns it?"

Damon raised a brow.

Luca nodded. "Aria's mother."

Aria blinked. "She died years ago."

"Not according to these files. Her name is still active in the registry. She was more than a diplomat. She was an asset."

Aria staggered back. "She... worked for them?"

"Or against them," Luca said. "We won't know until we go there."

---

They boarded a private jet at midnight. Zurich sparkled beneath them like a frozen jewel. The safehouse was buried beneath glass towers, accessed only through encrypted codes.

Inside, dust and silence greeted them—until Aria found a journal.

Her mother's handwriting filled the pages. Code names. Map coordinates. Mentions of the Council and the symbol ♛.

A final note read:

"If you find this, Aria... run. He knows."

Damon stared at the page. "Who is he?"

Aria turned slowly.

"The real King."

---

Outside, in the shadows, a figure watched them through a sniper scope.

The man's voice crackled into a comm device. "Target confirmed. Operation Black Seal begins."

"We have to be."

On the table behind them, a folder sat. Sealed in black wax. Stamped with a single symbol:

💨Episode 13: The Zurich Trap💨

Zurich was eerily quiet as snow began to fall, covering rooftops and walkways in a soft white shroud. Inside the safehouse, Aria paced, holding her mother's journal close.

"She knew everything," she murmured. "She was involved in all of it."

Damon leaned against the wall, gun resting on the table. "If she was hiding this much, it means she was working from inside. As a mole."

Luca stood by the window, peering through binoculars. "We're not alone anymore."

---

Outside, two black cars idled on the street.

Then the power cut.

Total darkness.

Damon grabbed Aria's arm. "Go to the tunnel. Now."

"But—"

"Now, Aria!"

Luca pulled a pistol from his coat as red lasers danced across the windows.

Snipers.

They moved fast, but not fast enough.

Glass shattered.

The room exploded into fire and bullets.

---

They escaped through the underground tunnel just seconds before the upper floor collapsed. As they ran, Aria kept hearing the same voice in her head—her mother's:

He knows.

Down in the subway, Damon's contact waited with a black duffel bag and new passports.

"You were compromised," he said. "They traced the safehouse."

Luca wiped blood from his brow. "We're running out of time."

Aria opened the bag and pulled out another sealed file—this one marked with three initials:

C.V.E.

"What is this?" she asked.

Damon stared at the letters. "Constantine Vale Enterprises. His front."

---

They flew to Monaco next, where one of Constantine's shell corporations hosted annual charity galas.

The plan was simple: infiltrate the gala, steal Constantine's encrypted ID key, and extract any digital trail.

Aria dressed in black silk, eyes lined sharp with defiance.

"You're glowing," Damon said.

She slipped a knife into her thigh holster. "I'm burning."

---

Inside the gala, golden chandeliers sparkled above a sea of masks and gowns. Aria and Damon moved through the crowd like ghosts, Luca whispering instructions through a comm.

Then a voice halted them.

"Lovely evening, isn't it?"

A tall man with silver hair approached. He wore a black velvet mask, and his aura was unmistakable.

Aria's breath caught.

It was him.

Constantine Vale.

She tried to keep her voice steady. "Beautiful, yes."

He looked her up and down. "You remind me of someone. A woman I once knew. She died... tragically."

Aria swallowed hard. "Must've been a loss."

"Oh," he smiled. "She never truly left."

---

Damon slipped the ID key from Constantine's pocket during the dance. But as they left, an alarm rang out.

"They know," Luca said. "You've got ten seconds."

They ran.

Gunfire echoed through the halls. Aria threw a smoke bomb behind her as Damon shielded her.

They reached the car. Sped off.

Inside, Aria clutched the key.

"We

have it."

Damon looked at her, eyes dark with fear and pride. "Now let's find out what he's really hiding."

💨Episode 14: The King's Game💨

Back in Berlin, Luca connected Constantine's ID key to a secure laptop. Aria sat beside him, chewing on a thumbnail as code flashed across the screen.

Damon stood by the window, pacing.

"We're in," Luca finally said. "Files. Videos. Audio logs. Everything."

Aria leaned in. One folder stood out:

KingProtocol_22

Luca clicked. A video began to play.

Constantine sat in a lavish chair, surrounded by Council insignias. "Phase One is complete," he said. "Phase Two begins with Aria Emory Reed's capture."

Her heart sank.

They were tracking her all along.

Damon's fists clenched. "He planned this. Even our marriage."

Aria turned to him, horror creeping in. "What do you mean?"

"Victor... the contract. The Council might have manipulated it all."

---

The next folder contained a blueprint. Not of a building—but of a bloodline map.

At the center: Aria Emory.

Every ancestor. Every tie. Every move she ever made was cataloged.

"They've been grooming you," Luca muttered. "For something bigger."

A message popped up on the screen: ACCESS FLAGGED. LOCATION TRACE INITIATED.

Damon yanked the laptop's cord. "Move!"

---

They changed safehouses again. This time in the back alleys of Prague, surrounded by fog and cobblestone.

Aria couldn't sleep. She walked onto the balcony, staring down at the ancient river.

Damon joined her. "We've become pieces in a game we didn't even know existed."

She leaned into him. "Then let's play better than them."

He smiled faintly. "That's why I married you. You don't give up."

---

Luca intercepted a new broadcast—one that was never meant for public ears.

It was a Council transmission.

"Operation King's Game has been activated. Eliminate Luca Voss. Capture Damon Reed alive. Aria Emory... bring her home."

They stared at each other.

"Home?" Aria whispered. "What does that mean?"

"Where it all began," Luca said. "The island. The one off the French coast. The original Council base."

---

They booked a speedboat under fake names. At dawn, the waves crashed hard against the shore.

The island was hidden behind mist, cliffs, and security.

But Aria wasn't afraid.

She wore black.

Damon strapped his gun.

Luca held the laptop like a weapon.

This was war.

And this time—they were coming to end the game.

[To Be Continued...]