CHAPTER 8 — THE MAN WHO CALLED HIMSELF HER BROTHER
Emergency lights flickered on.
Red shadows danced across the walls.
The footsteps stopped just outside the archive.
Amelia held her breath.
Then a calm voice echoed through the darkness.
"You can put the flashlight down."
"I'm not here to hurt you."
A tall man stepped into the light.
He looked to be in his early forties.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
The same unmistakable eyes Ethan had.
Lily gasped.
Daniel instinctively stepped in front of Amelia.
The stranger slowly removed a worn silver ring engraved with a lantern.
"My name is Nathan Brooks."
Silence filled the room.
"I believe..."
"I'm your brother."
Amelia stared at him.
"My father never had another child."
Nathan smiled sadly.
"That's what he wanted everyone to believe."
He handed Amelia an old photograph.
It showed a much younger Ethan standing beside a woman Amelia had never seen.
Between them stood a little boy.
Nathan.
"I wasn't abandoned," he explained quietly.
"I volunteered."
"When I was nineteen, your father asked me to disappear."
"He believed the Lantern Circle would one day need someone working in the shadows."
"For twenty-two years..."
"I've been watching."
"Waiting."
"Protecting the people he couldn't."
Daniel examined the photograph.
The paper was old.
The ink authentic.
Nothing appeared forged.
Amelia's emotions collided.
Anger.
Confusion.
Hope.
Before she could speak, Nathan's expression suddenly changed.
"They've found us."
Outside, tires screeched.
Black SUVs surrounded the building.
More than thirty armed men poured into the headquarters.
None wore police uniforms.
None carried company badges.
Each wore a small black pin shaped like a crown.
Nathan's voice became urgent.
"The Sovereign Council."
"They've finally come into the open."
May you like
"And they don't want the company."
"They want what's buried beneath it."
