Page 60 of Taken

“Steele.” The name sends ice through my veins.Iron… Steel… Malakai Steele.Lila had seen this, tried to tell me. I was just too fucking blind to see it. “I know him from the files. Craven ally, isn’t he?”

Creed’s laugh holds no humor. “That’s what everyone thought. What he wanted them to think.” He brings up additional intelligence reports, connection maps, intercepted communications. “Until our analysts pieced this together.”

The display shifts to show Steele’s connections, tentative lines stretching to known Circle of Fire operatives around the globe.

“He’s not just with the Circle,” Emerson explains, eyes fixed on the screen. “He’s leading them. Operating from deep cover within traditional dragon power structures.”

Jesus Christ. The notorious Circle of Fire—dragon extremists who dream of returning to the old days when dragons ruled through fear and flame. Who believe the veil of secrecy should be torn away and humans subjugated once more. And they have Elena. A Rossewyn witch who doesn’t even know what she is.

My blood runs cold. This changes everything.

“How did we miss this?” I keep my voice even, professional, despite the alarm bells clanging in my head.

“Steele’s good.” Creed’s eyes narrow to slits. “Very good. He’s been playing both sides—keeping Craven’s trust while directing Circle operations from the shadows.”

“And now he has Elena Ross,” I say it flatly, letting the implications hang in the air. “A Rossewyn witch who could potentially access the Heartstone.”

“Exactly.” Creed slams his fist into the console. Scales ripple across his cheekbones before he forces them back. “We’ve beenmonitoring her movements, waiting for her to lead us to it. And now the goddamn Circle has her instead.”

Oh, my fucking God.

The implications settle in my gut like lead. If Elena has accessed even a fraction of her latent power, and the Circle uses her to unlock the Heartstone…

“We’re proceeding under worst-case assumptions,” Creed continues. “Steele took her specifically for her blood connection to the Heartstone. And if he succeeds in getting her to access it…”

He doesn’t need to finish. We all know what it means—dragon existence revealed on the Circle’s violent terms. Global domination. Everything the Circle has dreamed of.

“Do we have any leads on where he might have taken her?” I ask, scanning the displays for clues.

“Nothing concrete.” Emerson pulls up a map of Seattle. “Our working theory is that he’s keeping her nearby. If his goal is the Heartstone, he’ll need to take her back to Craven headquarters.”

“Bold,” I say, maintaining my cover.

“It’s where the Stone is,” Creed says flatly. “There’s no accessing it remotely. And the Cravens haven’t raised any alarms yet about Elena’s disappearance—they may not even know she’s missing.”

“What about her friend?” I ask. “The one she was meeting?”

Emerson brings up a DMV photo of a striking woman with blue-streaked hair. “Mara Jones. Old friend from high school, runs some sort of conspiracy podcast. We’re looking into whether she was involved or another victim. But look at this…” She holds up her screen, and I step up closer, my eyes widening as I take in what I’m seeing.

“Are those…?”

“Dragons,” says Creed. “Not authentic, obviously, but the fucking idiot released an entire video outing dragons as real.”

“Fuck!” I bark before I can silence myself. “When did this happen?”

“Day or so ago,” says Emerson. “The thing went viral.”

“And we’re only learning this now?”

“We don’t normally source our intel from TikTok, Reeve,” she responds.

“Enough. There’s no time for this now. We need to find the Ross girl,” Creed says, voice dropping dangerously low. “Before Steele gets whatever he wants from her.”

“What resources do we have?” I ask, thinking of Lila. Wondering if she felt her daughter’s abduction, if the maternal bond between them still functions.

Of course it does. How could it not?

“Standard Syndicate assets are being deployed across all territories,” Emerson answers, typing rapidly on her tablet. “We’ve activated sleeper agents within Circle-controlled businesses. Surveillance drones are being redirected to known Circle facilities.”

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