ia

n the door t

a scene that seemed to pull

rcer-was entangled with Chloe on

lows, the familiar cartography of muscle

tangled in the si

y lungs feeling as if the

vanished, forcing my mouth open as I gulped at the bedro

if I were watching a stranger a

rame holding a photograph of Leo a

the assembled families, a piece of grand, posse

to out of the frame and tore it, not with v

e room. As I pivoted, the metal pins in my right knee grated against bone,

his voice echoing i

th and the impact of his

stride easily overcoming the lurching gait my l

, my voice devoi

jaw tight. "But do not blame Ch

hallway as if I posed a physical threat t

ged, clutching one of my s

rt of the fragile

she looked past me toward Dante, who had just appeare

finely tuned helplessness. "Don't let her leave. Make Aria stay.

t my eyes dr

ir after our parents' assassination. I saw him on his knees amids

ht from a rival cartel, the spray of enemy gunfire that had

ords choked with unshed tears, d

looked

oy who would slip through the hed

t arm, a desperate bid to buy him the two seco

e had sworn a Blood

d line of the old scar on my

protected life crumbled, not with a bang,

and my sworn prot

f you again," I stated, my vo

the stairs, ready to l

my path wa

front of me, a wall of mu

" Dante growled, his eyes f

ssing straight through me as if I were made of glass. "Tha

my breath catch

eered, his words like methodical, spaced blows. "You have always bee

something inside me w

ue. I didn't

dies, walked away, and left t

ont doors and stepped

, now felt like foreign artifacts, washed

on the banister, the way his eyes followed me into the rain. It was not enough to stop me. It was never enough. But it was t