"A crown split in two. A heartbeat that never stopped. A lie that lived."
---
Rain hit the rooftop like war drums. Jayden—no, Jayden Ochieng—stood shirtless, eyes locked on the mirror shard in his palm. The same mirror that had shown him the phantom days ago.
Behind him, Tielen's voice sliced through the silence.
"You didn't tell us you had a twin."
Jayden didn't turn. "Because I didn't know."
Linet entered, tossing down a sealed envelope marked in red wax—the seal of the Silent Pavilion, a ghost organization said to manipulate royal lineages from the shadows.
She whispered, "They called your brother... 'The Ghost King.' Hidden. Raised in exile. Trained to replace you."
---
Far beneath the Church of Echoes, Matilda stood over the risen corpse of Akinyi Ochieng. Or what was left of her.
Her voice was no longer of flesh and bone.
"I hid one. Raised the other. One light... one shadow."
Matilda cried out, "Which one was Jayden?"
The spirit didn't answer. Instead, it disintegrated, leaving behind only a name carved into the stone below:
"Zayden."
Jayden's twin. His mirror.
---
Back at the estate, Jeff received a blood-soaked envelope from an informant. Inside?
A list of names. Crossed out.
Only one name left untouched:
Jayden Ochieng.
At the bottom of the list, a message in red ink:
"The other one wakes."
---
Jayden boarded the high-speed train to Mavoko's Edge, the city where Zayden had last been sighted.
Wendy accompanied him, silent, alert.
"You think it's really him?" she asked.
"I don't think. I feel it."
She leaned close. "And if he wants your throne?"
Jayden didn't blink.
"Then I'll give it to him."
She frowned.
"…Right after I kill him."
---
In a desolate clearing just outside Mavoko's Edge, Jayden walked alone. The air was colder here. He could feel it.
Then a voice behind him.
"You came."
Jayden turned slowly.
Standing in the fog was a man who looked just like him—same build, same eyes, same scar... only mirrored.
"You're—"
"Zayden," the man said, finishing the sentence. "The twin that never was."
Jayden drew his blade.
Zayden smiled.
"So it begins."
---