The storm howled like a warning.
Rain slammed the stained-glass windows of the abandoned church, distorting the saints into shadows. Thunder cracked overhead as Silas tightened the bandage around Sienna's wrist, fingers moving with clinical precision.
His skin was still flushed from her antidote-rich blood—alive in a way he hadn't been in years.
"Too tight?" he murmured.
"No," Sienna whispered, watching him work."You're different."
He didn't answer.
But his hands—once riddled with tremors—moved like a surgeon's blade. Controlled. Deadly. Reborn.
Then—
Creak.
A floorboard near the door moaned under new weight.
Silas was on his feet in seconds.
The blade flashed in his hand.
K stepped into the candlelight, rain rolling from the hem of his coat like black oil.
Without a word, he reached for the clasp at his jaw.A flick.A snap.
And the mask fell.
Sienna's breath caught.
The man beneath the armor looked almost like her teacher.
The same sharp cheekbones. The same hawkish eyes. But younger. Feral. Less forgiveness in the face.
"Shifu?" she asked, voice trembling.
The stranger shook his head.
"No."He brought his fist to his palm, bowing in formal greeting."Lin Zhao.Your shixiong.Your teacher's first disciple."
Silas was on him before the final word left his lips.
The knife bit deep into Lin's throat skin, just shy of drawing blood.
"Prove it."
Lin didn't flinch. Didn't blink.
"The mark on your wife's face isn't a curse.It's a scar.A chemical burn.She was a baby when Dowager Nan tested an early Veritas strain on her.She screamed for three days straight."
Sienna's knees buckled.
She staggered back a step, gripping a pew to steady herself.Her hand went to her cheek as if to tear the memory free from her skin.
"That's why she sent me away," she whispered."Not to protect me.To hide the evidence."
The church trembled with thunder.
Lightning strobed through the shattered windows. Rain exploded like gunfire across the roof.
Silas slowly lowered his knife.
But his eyes never left Lin Zhao's.
"You waited a long time to show your face."
"I had to.Your enemies weren't just in the shadows—They were in your bloodline."
Sienna stepped forward, eyes glassy with fury.
"Tell me everything.No riddles.No tests.Just truth."
Lin Zhao nodded once.
"Then you'd better sit down.Because the truth will make you wish the lie had killed you."