Chapter 4 No One Hunts You Like Family

The moon hung low, half-hidden behind Lagos haze, its light broken by the jagged skyline.

Inside the warehouse, Zara gripped her gun but didn't raise it. Not yet.

She moved in slow, deliberate steps - like a woman walking into a memory she didn't trust anymore.

"She's outside," she whispered.

Darius stepped to the window, scanning the shadows.

"How do you know?"

"Because I can feel her watching," Zara murmured. "She always watched. Even before she was told to."

---

Amahle was already inside.

Not by force. Not by luck.

She flowed - through vent shafts, scaffolds, and silence. Like smoke shaped by purpose.

She perched in the rafters now, crouched in the steel shadows, eyes fixed on Zara's heartbeat.

Her hand hovered over a throwing knife.

She could end it.

Right now.

No struggle.

No sound.

But she didn't move.

Not yet.

---

Below, Zara spoke aloud - not to Darius, not to herself, but to the air:

"You were always faster.

Cleaner.

Colder.

But I never thought you'd be the one sent to bury me."

Silence.

Then - from above - the softest of sounds.

A footstep.

A landing.

A whisper.

"I volunteered."

---

Darius turned, gun drawn - but paused when he saw Amahle.

She didn't flinch.

Didn't reach for a weapon.

She only looked at Zara.

Not like a target.

Like a question.

---

They stared at each other for a heartbeat stretched across ten years.

"Hi, cousin," Zara said.

Amahle's voice was like silk soaked in blade oil.

"You shouldn't have come back."

"I didn't come back," Zara replied. "I just stopped running."

Darius glanced between them, confused. "You two want to hug or shoot each other?"

Neither answered.

---

Amahle lowered her knife. "You've caused a storm."

Zara smiled bitterly. "Didn't realize I had that much weather in me."

"You've got your mother's chaos."

"You've got my father's leash."

That stung.

Amahle blinked once - like it hurt more than expected.

---

"I won't kill you," she said finally. "Yet."

"Why not?" Zara asked.

"Because I need to know why. Why betray everything? Him? Us?"

Zara stepped closer. "Because it was all a lie. We were raised in a lie. I've seen the bodies, Amahle. The burned villages. The quiet payments."

"You saw what he let you see."

"No - I saw what you've been helping hide."

---

The silence cracked like glass.

Darius stepped in, voice flat. "We don't have time for a family reunion. Whoever's tracking her will be here next."

Amahle didn't move.

Zara's voice softened. "Amahle... if you still care - even a little - you'll help me finish this."

Amahle turned, slow and conflicted.

Then whispered:

> "You have 36 hours. After that...

I come for you myself."

She slipped back into shadow.

Gone.

But not far.

---

As her footsteps faded, Darius turned to Zara.

"You sure she's not gonna stab you in your sleep?"

Zara stared at the empty rafters, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I'm not sure of anything anymore."