A year after the fire, Cassie Vale is still haunted by what they took from her. But when someone from her past resurfaces, she realizes the program isn't dead, it's just begun again.
Here's your exclusive first look at The Directive: A Kepos Novel.
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The wind danced through the mountains in a way that felt alive, unlike the sterile air of Kepos. Here, among the towering pines, the forest exhaled its secrets. Cassie could hear the soft crunch of pine needles beneath her boots as she ventured deeper into the narrow clearing, her breath escaping in small clouds of fog. It had been a long year since the fire, a year since she and Jude had walked away from the charred remnants of their lives.
But the past had merely been a lullaby; the storm was returning.
Unease gnawed at her insides as if the forest itself felt her tension. And now, a message had appeared, anonymous and unsigned, like a ghost whispering from the dark corners of her memory.
"Phase Two has begun."
Cassie didn't know who had sent that foreboding note, but one thing was painfully clear: she knew exactly who she needed to find.
When Jude opened the door to their off-grid cabin, he looked as he always had, rugged and weathered, with that same haunted stillness lurking behind his deep-set eyes. The lines on his face spoke of sleepless nights and burdens carried. Without uttering a word, he pulled her into the warmth of their sanctuary.
"What did you find?" he asked, his voice low and steady.
Cassie hesitated, her heart hammering in her chest, then slid the folded note across the rough wooden table between them. The paper crinkled slightly, a sound that felt too loud in the silence.
His jaw tightened, clenching in a way that signaled troubled thoughts. "We said we'd run if this happened," he reminded her, the weight of their shared promise heavy in the air.
"And now?" she pressed, searching his gaze, looking for answers, for reassurance.
Jude's silence filled the space between them, a thick blanket that suffocated any hope of escape. They weren't running.
Not this time.
The Directive is a dark, seductive, and psychological sequel to The Retreat. Survival was just the beginning; now the reckoning awaited them in the shadows.
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