The crackle of fading electricity still lingered in the air, like a storm had passed and left only the distant growl of thunder. I sat on a half-collapsed crate, the splintered wood digging into my back, but it beat laying in the dirt. My muscles throbbed under the dead weight of exhaustion, the last embers of lightning having burned themselves out.

  Around me, the aftermath of the brawl was clear enough. Stormbound was out cold, slumped over like a busted machine with wires still sparking. The once imposing bulk of his armored form was stripped away in chunks, revealing the wiry, pale man underneath — all sinew and sweat. He’d probably wake up with more regrets than just the headache. The rest of Rico’s goons weren’t much better. I’d piled them up like bags of trash and tied them together using what I could find. A couple of broken belts, some stripped electrical wire — real top-tier craftsmanship.

  “Consider yourselves lucky,” I muttered, mostly to Stormbound. “Could’ve just left you in the dirt. Thought I’d be nice for once.”

  He didn’t answer. Not surprising.

  The wind stirred, kicking up dust across the street. The place was eerily quiet now, save for the occasional creak of a ruined sign swinging overhead. It was almost peaceful, in that post-chaos kind of way. But the peace didn’t last.

  From down the street, a figure emerged through the haze — dragging something behind her.

  Haley.

  She was a mess. Clothes torn, dirt smeared across her face, and one sleeve of her coat practically hanging by a thread. Her hair was a windswept disaster, a tangled mane of pink streaked with grime. Yet somehow, she still managed to strut like she owned the whole damn street. And trailing behind her, limp and defeated, was the Gilded Maw in all her snake-tailed glory. The golden armor was scuffed and cracked, and the twisted sneer that once graced Maw’s face had been replaced by the sweet silence of unconsciousness.

  Haley caught my eye, and despite the bruises and the torn-up coat, she grinned. “Well, you should see the other guy.”

  I snorted. “I think I kinda am.”

  She kicked a stray chunk of rubble out of her path, the scrape of her boot echoing down the empty street. “What about you? Stormbound give you a hard time?”

  “Nothing I couldn’t handle,” I said, gesturing to the heap of bodies behind me. “Guy talks big but falls hard.” I smirked. “Though I’ll admit, he packed a wallop.”

  Haley’s eyes flicked to the sprawled-out Stormbound, then back to me. “let me guess though — you threw the last punch?”

  “Wouldn’t be much of a victory story if I didn’t.”

  She gave an exaggerated nod, dragging the Gilded Maw the last few feet before unceremoniously dropping her in the dirt. “Well, that’s two down. Rico’s gonna be real unhappy when he hears about this.”

  “Good.” I leaned forward, rubbing the back of my neck. “Maybe next time he’ll think twice before sending these circus acts after us.”

  Haley’s grin widened, but there was a sharp edge to it. “Or maybe he’ll double down.”

  “Yeah. That sounds more like him.”

  She let out a breath, wiping the sweat from her brow. “So… what now? You planning on giving these guys a stern talking-to when they wake up?”

  “Tempting.” I stood, stretching as my joints protested. “But nah. Thought I’d let them stew for a bit and collect a little funds. Maybe give them time to think about all their life choices.”

  Haley barked out a laugh. “Real generous of you.”

  “What can I say? I’m all heart.”

  She shook her head, clearly amused despite the bruises. But there was something else in her expression — that lingering awareness that we weren’t done yet. Not by a long shot.

  I watched as Haley brushed the dirt off her torn-up sleeve, her eyes scanning the mess of bodies scattered at our feet. The breeze had died down, leaving the stench of smoke and blood heavy in the air, but it wasn’t the aftermath of the fight that had my mind racing. It was what Haley was about to say.

  She let out a sigh and shifted her stance, rolling her shoulders as though shaking off the tension. “You know, Maw wasn’t all talk. She made it pretty clear. This whole mess? It’s all connected to Rico.”

  I blinked, the weight of her words sinking in. My gaze dropped to the unconscious bodies of the goons and then flicked back to her. “Rico, huh? Thunderbound mentioned him earlier.” I muttered, keeping my voice low but steady. “I knew he was bad news, but it sounds like he’s more than just a street thug.”

  Haley’s face hardened. “A lot more.” She kicked a nearby chunk of rubble, frustration flashing in her eyes. “Maw wasn’t shy about telling me what she knows about him. She said Rico’s not just some big fish in a small pond. He’s La Sombra.”

  La Sombra. The name hit like a ton of bricks. I didn’t need to ask to know what that meant. La Sombra wasn’t just some underworld boss — he was the name. The shadow that hung over every criminal network in the region, the one everyone feared but few knew.

  I felt the cold grip of realization creeping in. This wasn’t just a personal vendetta for Rico anymore. This was something much bigger.

  “Wait a second.” I leaned forward, my mind processing the new info, each word clicking into place. “You’re telling me Rico is La Sombra?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded grimly, looking away for a second like she was trying to push past the enormity of it all. “And if he really is… then he’s not just a local player. Or just a lieutenant. He's a Captain at least, that’s what Maw hinted at. If he’s in charge of operations like these, then he’s got the kind of clout to run things on a massive scale. We’re talking California, Oregon, even Tijuana and Ensenada… everything in between. All under his jurisdiction. That’s just a tiny fraction of the Ashen Covenant's might. A whole network of people, resources, and power.”

  My hands balled into fists. The Ashen Covenant was the kind of organization that made even the most hardened criminals step lightly. A syndicate that could control entire regions, have fingers in every dark corner, and make the law enforcement look like amateurs.

  “And you’re telling me this guy’s been flying under the radar all this time?” I scoffed. “Damn. No wonder he hasn’t been brought down.”

  “That’s the thing.” Haley paused, her voice dropping, the weight of the reality hitting her too. “He’s been in the shadows, working behind the scenes. But now? Now that we’ve caught his trail, it’s only a matter of time before he decides we’re a bigger problem than he first thought. He’s got resources, manpower, connections. And from the looks of it, he’s not gonna let you go or let us stand in his way.”

  I ground my teeth, my mind flashing back to the incident the fights, to everything that had happened since. My life had been nothing but chaos — but this? This was on a whole new level.

  Haley must’ve seen my frustration because she gave me a pointed look. “This isn’t just about us anymore, Kain. It’s bigger it's about everyone he controls. The people who’ve been crushed under his boot for too long. And if we’re really gonna put a stop to this… we can't afford to pull any punches we have to be smart.”

  Smart. I wanted to laugh. I wasn’t a mastermind. I was a guy with a broken past and a bunch of powers that sometimes worked, sometimes didn’t. But as Haley stood there, her expression as grim as I felt, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we didn’t have a choice anymore.

  “The people we’ve been dealing with…” I trailed off, eyes drifting over to the bound bodies of the goons we’d taken down. “They were just pawns, weren’t they?”

  “Exactly.” Haley didn’t even flinch, like she’d already known the answer. “We’ve been dealing with the tip of the iceberg. Rico’s got a whole operation that we’ve barely scratched the surface of.”

  A thousand thoughts bombarded me at once — how many more people were in on this? How many lives were being ruined while we chased this ghost? I glanced at Haley, then at the unconscious goons, my mind heavy with the weight of what we’d just learned.

  “So what’s the play?” I asked, trying to push my anger back. “You think we can just take him on directly?”

  Haley shook her head. “Not yet. If we go in blind, we’re just asking for trouble. But we have to start somewhere. First, we figure out who’s really running things under him. Then we get our hands on anything we can use to take him down.” She looked at me, that same fire in her eyes. “And we make sure no one else gets caught in the crossfire.”

  I nodded slowly, my thoughts running a mile a minute. I didn’t know if we had what it took to take down an operation like this — hell, we didn’t even know the full scope of it yet. But one thing was clear:

  Rico was no ordinary enemy. And if we wanted to stop him, we had to be smarter, faster, and deadlier than ever before.

  This was just the beginning.

  Maw stirred before her eyes opened, slitted pupils gleaming in the fading light. A low, rasping laugh bubbled up from her throat, sending an unsettling chill through the air. The sound was more mocking than pained, like the aftermath of a well-played game.