The estate had the quiet panic of a battlefield dressed up in silk and glass.
Security scrambled through the corridors. David shouted orders into a headset, sharp and clipped. Staff hurried past in all directions, reinforcing doors, locking down windows. The place pulsed with urgency, someone had breached their walls.
Mariluna walked through the chaos untouched, like the calm center of a hurricane.
She didn't feel like the same girl who had been yanked from her uncle's house days ago.
Her hands still shook, deep inside, but something colder had begun to settle in her bones.
Purpose.
"She wasn't the target."
David's words echoed in her skull, louder the longer they lingered.
She sat in the great hall, arms crossed, firelight dancing behind her, casting shadows across the stone.
"Then why take her?" she asked.
Lorenzo paced nearby, looking like a caged animal. His sleeves were rolled to the elbows again, veins rigid in his arms. His jaw clenched and unclenched, like it physically hurt to stay still.
"A message," he muttered. "They wanted to prove they could get to me, get inside my home."
Mariluna didn't look at him. Her eyes stayed on the flames.
"No," she said, her voice low. "They wanted me to feel it."
He stopped.
She turned to face him fully, gaze steady and sharp. "They took her because she's family. Because if they hurt her… they hurt me."
Lorenzo stepped closer.
"Do they?" he asked.
There was no mockery in his tone. Just a question.
A test.
Mariluna hesitated. Swallowed.
"She's my cousin," she said. "She hated me. She would've betrayed me again without blinking. But she didn't deserve this."
His eyes narrowed a fraction.
"So what will you do?"
Another test.
This time, she didn't need to think.
"Find them," she said. "Make them regret ever laying a hand on her."
There was a brief silence.
Then Lorenzo smiled, just barely. The edge of something sharper.
"I knew there was fire in you," he said quietly. "Now I see it."
Somewhere far beneath the surface, beneath rusted beams and dripping pipes,Cassandra screamed.
The sound bounced off stone walls, raw and broken.
The man crouched in front of her didn't flinch. He remained in the shadows, calm and composed, a silver ring catching the light on his finger.
Veritas.
"You've always been the noisy one," he said casually. "Always shouting about what you think you deserve."
"Let me go," she snapped. "My father will bury you."
"Your father handed your cousin to the Rossi like a bargaining chip," Veritas replied, standing up. "He won't save you."
He moved around her, slow and deliberate, like a predator circling something already dying.
"Do you know what Mariluna has that you don't?"
Cassandra glared at him, rage seething just beneath her bruised expression.
"Everything."
"No," he said, leaning in close. His voice dropped. "She has destiny."
Back at the estate…
Lorenzo handed her a black envelope.
"What's this?" Mariluna asked.
"A decision."
She opened it, fingers steady, but her breath caught as she saw what was inside.
Photos. Names. Maps. Surveillance. A layout of a compound.
"This is where they're keeping her?" she asked.
He nodded.
"You want me to choose?" she said.
"I want you to decide whether you'll become."
"Become what?"
His voice turned to flame.
"Mine."
She looked at him.
He didn't mean it as a vow.
He meant it as a challenge. A declaration of war.
If she said yes, she wouldn't be a bystander anymore. She'd be a Rossi. A force. A weapon with a name carved into history.
She glanced down at the photos again.
Then said, "When do we move?"
Hours later…
In the back of an armored vehicle, Mariluna sat in silence.
Black clothes. Hair tied back. Gloves on. A blade strapped to her thigh, a gift from Lorenzo.
A Rossi dagger. Same emblem as the ring.
Lorenzo slid in beside her. David was already up front.
He looked at her, just long enough to see who she was becoming.
"If we do this," she said, "I want to be the one to face him."
"Veritas is dangerous."
"So am I."
Something flickered in his eyes. Pride, maybe.
"Don't hesitate," he said.
"I won't."
"Don't flinch."
"I haven't."
"And if he lays a hand on you".
She cut in. "He won't even get close."
They didn't look away from each other.
No masks left. No games.
Just two wolves, ready to kill.
Inside the compound…
The stench of blood and rust filled the air. The screaming had faded to broken sobs.
Cassandra's head drooped, heavy with exhaustion.
Then, footsteps. A gate sliding open.
She looked up, and froze.
Mariluna.
Black leather. Cold eyes. A knife in her hand.
"W-What are you doing here?" Cassandra asked, her voice cracked and brittle.
Mariluna didn't respond. Just moved to the side.
Lorenzo entered behind her.
The temperature shifted, sharp and immediate.
Then, from the shadows, Veritas emerged, smiling like the devil with secrets.
"Well, well. The prince and the phoenix."
Lorenzo said nothing.
Mariluna stepped forward.
"Let her go," she said.
Veritas tilted his head, amused. "I hoped you'd come. You and I… we share more than you think, little heir."
"You don't know anything about me."
He grinned. "I know your name's not Mariluna."
She stilled.
"It's Celestina," he said. "Daughter of the Unblooded Pact. Your father erased the truth to keep you hidden."
Lorenzo stiffened beside her.
Her heart thudded painfully in her chest.
"What are you talking about?" she whispered.
Veritas' grin widened.
"You were never just the last Valez. You're the heir to the Unblooded Court, the hidden bloodline. The one above all others."
Her mind reeled.
Lorenzo stepped between them instinctively.
But the damage was done.
The truth had landed like a knife to the gut.
Behind her, Cassandra sobbed quietly.
In front of her, Veritas smiled like he already knew what she'd ask.
And she did.
"Who am I really?" she said.
His voice came like smoke.
"The end of all of us."