Darkness's Arc

Chapter 6 of 10

Darkness finds Nyx in the basement beneath the library, sitting on the collapsed floorboards with her back against the filing cabinet. She's not hiding. She's waiting. When Darkness steps into the light, Nyx looks up and says she knows who set her up. Darkness moves closer but doesn't sit. She pulls the creased letter from her pocket — the one she found tucked inside W.G.'s construction sign at the tower, old ink on fragile paper. Nyx's eyes lock on it, and her hands go still. She says the name before Darkness can ask. The sound of it stops everything. Darkness's fingers freeze on the letter's edge, and the weight that lands isn't surprise. It's recognition. She already knew. She just needed Nyx to say it first. Nyx stands and walks to the doorway, her shadow stretching under the rusted streetlight that bleeds through the gap in the ceiling. She says the person who wrote the alibi didn't know what they were doing — they thought they were helping. But someone else used that trust, turned it into a weapon, and now Nyx can't go back to them without putting them in the hunter's crosshair. Darkness watches her lean against the stone arch that frames the collapsed entrance, moss growing thick between the blocks. Nyx isn't asking for protection. She's asking Darkness to let her handle it alone. Darkness folds the letter and tucks it back into her pocket. She tells Nyx no. Not alone. Not this time. The person who set her up might not have known, but the hunter did — and Darkness isn't going to let Nyx walk into that gap unguarded. Nyx doesn't argue. She just nods, and something between them shifts. They're not splitting up to cover more ground. They're moving together now, and the hunter is going to see both of them coming.