Chapter 40

    The fire started slowly, unnoticed at first—just a thin curl of smoke rising from the edge of the city, barely visible against the sweltering August sky. But by the time I realized what was happening, it was already too late. The flames were spreading, licking at the edges of the old building like they’d been waiting for this moment all along.

    I was too far away to stop it. Too late to do anything but watch as the fire climbed higher, devouring everything in its path. The heat was unbearable, radiating out into the street, driving the people who hadn’t already fled into a frenzied panic. The smoke curled thick and black into the sky, blotting out the sun, casting everything in an eerie orange glow.

    I pushed my way through the crowd, trying to get closer, trying to find a way in, but the fire had already claimed its territory. The flames roared, swallowing the building whole, windows exploding outwards as the heat twisted the metal and glass like paper.

    I hadn’t meant for this to happen. Achilles had played his hand, and I’d been a step too slow, a second too late to stop him from lighting the match. I could feel the guilt, the weight of failure settling over me as I stood there, helpless. The crimes I had been chasing, the truths I had been trying to uncover—it all felt distant now, consumed by the fire, erased in the flames that danced in front of me.

    But then I saw her.

    Madeleine.

    She was trapped, caught in the middle of it all. I could see her through the smoke, her silhouette framed against the inferno, and for a moment, everything stopped. The heat, the noise, the crowd—all of it faded into the background, and all that was left was Madeleine, standing in the middle of the flames, too close to the edge, too close to being consumed.

    I didn’t think. I didn’t have time to think. I just moved, pushing my way forward, the heat biting at my skin, the smoke burning my throat as I fought to get closer. The flames crackled, sparks flying through the air like embers in a furnace, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.

    The fire was everywhere now, raging around me, threatening to swallow us both, but I grabbed her arm, pulling her back from the edge, pulling her out of the flames before they could take her. She stumbled, coughing, her eyes wide with panic, but she was alive. That was all that mattered.

    I dragged her out into the street, the roar of the fire deafening behind us, and we collapsed onto the pavement, gasping for breath. The crowd had scattered, the heat driving them away, but the fire raged on, consuming everything in its path.

    “Are you okay?” I asked, my voice hoarse, my lungs burning from the smoke.

    Madeleine nodded, but her face was pale, her body shaking. “I thought... I thought it was over,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the crackling of the fire.

    “It’s not over,” I said, my mind racing. “Not yet.”

    The flames rose higher, casting long shadows across the street, and for a moment, I felt a strange sense of clarity. The crimes I’d been chasing, the people who had pulled the strings, the truths that had been buried beneath layers of lies—it was all there, in front of me. The fire had burned away the confusion, the sloth of August, and now, in the heat of the moment, I could see it clearly.

    Achilles. Tony. Limbo. They were all part of it, all tangled together in a web of deceit and violence that stretched back further than I’d realized. The city, the people, the secrets—it was all connected, all part of the same game, and I was just beginning to understand how deep it went.

    But the fire wasn’t done. It was still burning, still consuming everything in its path, and I knew that if I didn’t act now, it would take more than just the building. It would take the city. The flames, the destruction—it was all part of a larger plan, one I hadn’t seen until it was almost too late.

    I stood up, pulling Madeleine to her feet, the heat of the fire pushing us back as the building began to collapse in on itself. The flames roared, but I wasn’t afraid anymore. I knew what I had to do.

    “We have to go,” I said, my voice steady despite the chaos around us. “There’s more to this. More than we realized.”

    Madeleine looked at me, her eyes filled with confusion, but she nodded. She trusted me. She always had.

    We turned, leaving the fire behind, the flames still burning in the distance as we walked away, back into the city. The heat followed us, the memory of the flames lingering in the air, but I could feel the change coming. The crimes of the past, the truths I had been chasing—they were closer now, just within reach.

    And as we walked into September, I knew that the time for reckoning had come.