POV: Third Person
Silas didn’t rush traps. He built them slowly.
The news went out at dawn. It was sent through secret channels that were supposed to be private, which meant they were actually the fastest way to spread a rumor. It started as a whisper, then it grew into a roar that reached everyone who mattered in the city.
Black Tide was offering a trade.
It was clean and public. And it was a dare. Silas was promising to hand over Gideon Hale… alive.
The meeting spot was an old, abandoned transit station on the coast. It was a place made of crumbling concrete and rusted metal, sitting right between the city and the ocean. Silas called it "neutral ground," but in their world, there was no such thing. Every inch of that station was a potential grave.
The message had rules, of course.
