<h4>Chapter 215: Bane Castor</h4>


    <strong>ter</strong>


    My head throbbed with a dull, persistent ache. I opened my eyes slowly, wincing at even the dim light filtering through cracks in whatever space I was in.


    Everything came back in fragments. The festival. Riley’s terrified face. Bane Castor standing in the shadows, watching us. Me walking toward the parking lot, pulling out my phone to call for help.


    Then... nothing. Just darkness and the sensation of falling.


    They’d drugged me. Tranquillised me, probably like an animal.


    As my eyes adjusted, I realised I was in a metal container. Shipping container, maybe? The walls were corrugated steel, the floor cold and hard beneath me. There were no windows, just a few thin gaps where the door didn’t seal, letting in slivers of light and air.


    My hands were zip-tied in front of me. My phone was gone. So was my wallet.


    But I wasn’t alone.


    Across from me, maybe six feet away, someone else was lying against the opposite wall. Even in the dim light, I recognised her immediately.


    Riley.


    My sister.


    Despite everything, despite being kidnapped, drugged, tied up, and trapped in a metal box, I felt a strange surge of happiness. She was here. Right in front of me. After months of separation, months of wondering if she was okay, she was here.


    She looked different from how I remembered. Older, obviously. More tired. Her face had lines I didn’t recognise. Her short hair was messy, and a recent cut above her eyebrow was visible. She wore casual clothes—jeans and a t-shirt—, but they were dirty and torn in ces.


    She looked like she’d been through hell.


    But she was still my sister—still Riley.


    I watched her sleep for what felt like hours, but was probably only minutes. My whole body ached from whatever position I’d been in while unconscious. My mouth was dry. My head still pounded.


    Then Riley groaned. It was a soft sound of pain, and my heart clenched.


    "Riley?" I said quietly.


    She didn’t respond. Her eyes opened slowly, squinting against even the minimal light. She looked around, taking in our surroundings with the expression of someone who’d been in this situation before.


    Then her eyesnded on me.


    She sighed deeply and rolled her eyes, turning her face away from me.


    "Riley," I said again. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"


    She didn’t say anything. She just stared at the wall,pletely ignoring me.


    "Riley, please. Talk to me."


    Still nothing.


    "I know you’re mad at me for showing up at the school. I know I shouldn’t havee without warning. But I was worried about you. I just wanted to see if you were okay."


    Silence.


    "Riley, we need to figure out where we are. We need to work together to get out of here."


    She still wouldn’t look at me. She wouldn’t acknowledge I’d even spoken.


    I was getting more and more frustrated by the second. "Are you seriously going to ignore me right now? We’re kidnapped, Riley. Tied up in a container. This is serious."


    Still, no word.


    "Fine," I said, my voice taking on a colder tone. "Be stubborn. But at least please tell me if you’re hurt. I saw that cut on your head. Do you need medical attention?"


    She shifted slightly but didn’t turn toward me.


    I tried a different approach. "I’ve missed you. All these months. I’ve missed you every single day."


    Her jaw clenched. I saw it even in profile. But she still didn’t speak.


    "Mom and Dad miss you, too. They never say it out loud, but I can see it. The way Dad gets quiet on your birthday. The way Mom cooks your favourite foods even though you’re not there to eat them."


    Riley’s hands, also zip-tied, clenched into fists. But her lips stayed pressed together.


    "I know I messed up," I continued. "Coming to find you. But I’m your brother. I couldn’t just sit at Ravenshore knowing you were out here somewhere, wondering if you were safe. Especially after—"


    I stopped. I’d almost said "after I discovered the Collectors were operating near your town." But something made me hold back.


    "Please," I said quietly. "Just say something. Anything."


    For a long moment, nothing. Then Riley took a deep breath and let it out slowly.


    But she still didn’t speak to me.


    I leaned my head back against the metal wall, feeling defeated. Months of separation, months of hoping we’d reconnect someday. And now that we were in the same room, she wouldn’t even acknowledge me.


    We sat in silence. I could hear sounds from outside our container—voices, movement, the rumble of what might be traffic. We were being transported somewhere. But where?


    Suddenly, there was a loud thud. The entire container jolted violently. I was thrown sideways, my shoulder mming into the wall. Riley rolled forward, barely catching herself before her head hit the floor.


    When the movement stopped, we bothy still for a moment, breathing hard.


    Then Riley turned toward me.


    "You shouldn’t havee here," she said.


    "Riley—"


    "You shouldn’t havee," she repeated, and there was anger in her voice now. "You’ve only made things worse."


    "Made things worse?" I pushed myself back into a sitting position. "Riley, I was trying to rescue you. I was trying to help."


    "I don’t need rescuing!" Her voice rose. "I had everything under control. I had a n. And you showing up—you ruined everything!"


    "What n? What are you talking about?"


    Sheughed bitterly. "You think you can just walk back into my life? After I spent years building something new? After I finally got away from all the supernatural bullshit?"


    "You’re my sister—"


    "I was your sister," she interrupted. "Past tense. I left that life behind. I left you behind. And I was fine with that."


    "You don’t mean that."


    "Don’t I?" She stared at me, and there was pain in her eyes beneath the anger. "I left for a reason, ter. To get away from the pack, from the expectations, from all of it. And now you’ve dragged me right back in."


    "I didn’t drag you into anything. You were missing Riley. Everyone thought you were dead, and the academy didn’t give us satisfactory answers. And the person in the shadows was Bane Castor, right? Do you know he was dered dead, too? Alongside other people. Why was he at the festival, and why was he watching you?"


    Riley’s face went pale. "You saw him?"


    "Yes. And he saw me. That’s why we’re here. If you’re alive and Bane is alive too, it means there’s a possibility that all those missing students are still alive too."


    She closed her eyes. "You idiot. You,plete idiot."


    "What’s going on, Riley? What is the connection between you and Bane Castor?"


    "It doesn’t matter."


    "It does matter! We’ve been kidnapped!"


    "And whose fault is that?" She red at me. "I could have kept things the way they were. I could have maintained the bnce. But you showing up—this changes everything."


    We heard footsteps above us, and I froze, listening. Riley did the same.


    The footsteps paused directly above our container, then moved on. Both of us let out quiet breaths.


    "Riley," I whispered. "I know about everything."


    She looked at me sharply. "What?"


    "The experiment at Ebonvale. I know about it. I know what they did to you."


    Her face wentpletely white. "How...?"


    "I have sources—friends who’ve been investigating. I know about the experimentation on wolves. I know they were trying to—"


    "You don’t know anything," Riley hissed, cutting me off. "You think you know, but you don’t know half of what it really is."


    "Then tell me."


    "I can’t. And even if I could, you wouldn’t believe me."


    "Try me."


    She shook her head. "They only show you things you want to see. Feed you information that fits a narrative. But the truth?" Sheughed again, that same bitter sound. "The truth is so much worse than whatever you think you know."


    "Riley—"


    "Stop." She held up her bound hands. "Just stop. You can’t help me. You can’t fix this. You being here has only put both of us in more danger."


    "Then let me try to get us out—"


    "There is no getting out," she said tly.


    The finality in her voice scared me more than anything else had.


    We heard more movement above. This time closer. Someone was fumbling with something, a lock, maybe.


    Riley’s eyes went wide. She leaned forward urgently.


    "Listen to me," she whispered. "If you want to survive this, you need to pretend you don’t know me."


    "What?"


    "When that door opens, act like we’re strangers. Don’t call me your sister. Please don’t say we’re rted. Don’t even acknowledge that you know who I am."


    "Riley, I’m not going to—"


    "Please." Her voice broke. "Please, ter. This is the only way. If they think we’re connected, they’ll use me against you. Or use you against me. Either way, we’re both dead."


    The metallic scraping got louder. Someone was definitely working on the lock.


    "Promise me," Riley insisted. "Promise you’ll pretend we just met. That you don’t know anything about me."


    I wanted to argue and tell her that hiding our rtionship wouldn’t change anything. But something in her eyes made me hesitate.


    "Okay," I said finally. "Okay, I promise."


    She nodded and turned away from me, putting distance between us as much as she could in the confined space.


    The lock clicked.


    Light flooded into the container, so bright after the darkness that I had to squeeze my eyes shut. I heard the sound of metal doors being pulled open and felt the rush of fresh air.


    When I finally managed to open my eyes, squinting against the brightness, I saw a silhouette standing in the doorway.


    As my vision adjusted, the silhouette became clear.


    Bane Castor.