After Julian left, Nolan appeared on the rooftop. But he stopped when he saw someone walking out through the door. Julian. The two of them only had a few seconds to stare at each other. Julian looked rushed. He did not even say anything when he passed Nolan. He only gave him a brief look before leaving the rooftop. Nolan furrowed his brow. Something was strange. He then turned his gaze toward Elara, who was still standing there.
“Are you okay?”
Elara turned toward him. “Why?”
“I ran into Julian just now.”
Elara let out a soft sigh. “He’s gone.”
“I can see that.” Nolan studied his cousin’s face. “Did you two fight?”
“What do you think?”
Nolan knew Elara. When she was angry, she usually tried to hide it by acting calmer than usual.
“Did he say anything?”
Elara shifted her gaze toward the city spread out below them. “Nothing important.”
Nolan did not continue questioning her. But Julian’s look kept replaying in his mind. The man had looked like someone who was hiding something.
But what?!
The next day, Elara finally came to Dominion.
The building she had only ever heard about in adults’ conversations was nothing like what she had imagined.
From the outside, it looked like nothing more than an old warehouse that had not been used in years.
There was no sign. No indication that the place was still in use. But the moment the door opened, the atmosphere changed completely.
The sound of blows came from inside. Several people were training.
Some were fighting with their bare hands, some were practicing with knives, while others ran through the halls with serious expressions.
No one looked relaxed. No one laughed. Everyone there seemed to know exactly what they were supposed to do.
Adrian stood beside Elara.
“Welcome to Dominion.”
Elara looked around. “So this is Dominion?”
“Yes.”
All this time, the name had existed only in fragments of stories that had never been explained to her.
The organization once led by her father. The place that might hold the answers about both her parents’ deaths. And now, Elara stood right inside it.
Several people began to notice her. Some only glanced her way. Others stared longer. A few immediately whispered to the person beside them.
Elara did not need to hear their conversations to know what they were discussing.
The daughter of Theodore Vincent Ashbourne. That name still meant something here.
Whether as a mark of respect—or something far worse.
“Don’t pay attention to them,” Adrian said.
Elara turned to him. “They seem very interested in me.”
Adrian only exhaled.
“They want to know whether you deserve to be here.”
“And if I don’t?”
“You’ll leave.” Adrian’s answer sounded simple.
But Elara knew her uncle. There was something he was not saying.
“You can still change your mind,” Elara said.
Adrian looked at her.
“So can you.”
Elara smiled faintly.
“I’m not going to change my mind.”
Adrian looked away.
“I know.”
Dominion had rules very different from what Elara had imagined.
No member was allowed to act alone. No one could bring personal matters into the organization. Orders from superiors had to be obeyed. Betrayal was considered the most serious offense. And no one truly stood above Dominion.
Not even its leader.
Adrian explained everything briefly.
Elara listened without interrupting.
They then passed through a large room filled with photographs of former Dominion members.
Elara’s steps suddenly stopped.
On one side of the wall was a photograph that made her entire body go rigid.
Theodore Vincent Ashbourne. Her father.
Elara did not need to read the name written beneath the photograph.
She knew that face. Knew it far too well.
The face that had appeared only in her memories for years. The face she had last seen with blood flowing from his body. The face that had looked at her one final time before everything went dark.
Elara held her breath. Her fingers slowly curled into fists. Suddenly, the sounds around her seemed to fade away.
She was back in that night.
In that same place.
Watching her father stand several yards in front of her. Hearing the gunshot. Watching Theodore’s body fall. And seeing someone standing before her after it was all over.
Elara closed her eyes for a moment.
No.
She did not want to remember.
Not now.
“Elara.” Adrian’s voice brought her back to herself.
Elara opened her eyes. Her uncle stood beside her.
“Are you okay?”
Elara looked at her father’s photograph once more. “He looks different.”
Adrian fell silent.
“In this photograph.” Elara swallowed.
“He looks like someone who still had so much left to do.”
Adrian looked away. “He was.”
Elara looked at him. “Uncle, were you there when this photograph was taken?”
“Yes.”
“Was he happy?”
Adrian did not answer immediately. “It seemed like it.”
Elara looked at the photograph again. “I still remember his face when he died.”
Adrian froze.
Elara rarely spoke about that night. Not even with her own family.
“He didn’t look like this that night.”
Adrian looked toward Elara.
“What do you mean?”
“He looked afraid.”
Silence.
Elara shifted her gaze away.
“Not for himself.”
Adrian said nothing.
And it was that very silence that made Elara even more suspicious.