Page 75 of Undercover Shadow
“Idris left codes for me. I didn’t understand what they were until tonight.” My words were vague, certainly not accurately conveying the hell we’d lived through, but each one cost me energy I no longer had.
“You saved the world,” Viper said simply.
The weight of it settled on my chest. I’d been focused on the immediate threat, on Tag finding me, on stopping Ambrose. But the scale was staggering.
“The full debrief can wait,” barked Typhon. “Get her out of here. We’ll handle cleanup.”
They left, and the medic finished her examination. “You’re lucky. Nothing’s broken, nothing that won’t heal. But you need rest.”
Tag helped me stand. In the corner, I saw our team gathering. Con had his arm around Lex; Gus stood with Renegade, both of them silent; and Ash sat alone, staring at nothing.
I pulled away from Tag and went to him. He looked up as I approached, his eyes hollow.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
I sat beside him and took his hand. “You saved my life. Not just mine. You’ve nothing to be sorry for.”
“I know.” His voice broke. “My father’s own brother turned into someone evil and twisted. How do I explain it to the world?”
“You can’t. You are not responsible for his actions or his mental state.”
He squeezed my hand, then let go. “Thank you. For memorizing those sequences. For stopping it.”
I wanted to say more, to ease his pain, but there were no words for this. Sometimes, people we loved became monsters. Sometimes, we had to stop them. The cost was always higher than we imagined.
Tag knelt in front of me. “The helicopter’s here. Time to go.”
Outside,the night air hit my lungs like ice, sharp and clean after the mustiness of the castle. The chopper waited with the rotors already spinning, and the pilot stood by the open door. His eyes widened when he saw me—the marks on my throat, the blood on my clothes that wasn’t all mine, the way I was shaking.
“Get us home. To Glenshadow,” Tag told him.
Glenshadow.The word felt foreign and perfect all at once.
Tag helped me into the cabin and climbed in after me. As we lifted off, I watched Brodick Castle fall away below us—that tower, that room, those bodies. Emergency vehicles covered the grounds. So many people had responded to clean up our mess, to hide what had almost happened from a world that would never know how close it had come to ending.
My body shook harder as we flew over the dark water toward the mainland. My teeth chattered despite the heated cabin.
“Shock is setting in,” Tag murmured, pulling me against him.
But it was more than that. The adrenaline that had kept me functional was crashing, leaving behind the raw reality of what had happened.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered against his chest.
His arms tightened. “Not necessary.”
“But I lied. I went to Viper and Typhon instead of you.”
He was quiet for several seconds. “I would have stopped you.”
“I know.”
“If you hadn’t been there, if you hadn’t had those codes…”
“McLaren would have found another way.”
“No.” His voice was firm. “She was dying. She knew she had seconds. She gave you the clue because she knew only you would understand.”
The tears came then—hot and unstoppable. For Idris, who’d died protecting this information. For McLaren, who’d died activating it. For MacLeod’s wife and daughter, who would wake tomorrow to find their world destroyed. Even for Ambrose, the broken man who’d let bitterness turn him into a monster.
