Blood Roses & Broken Vows

ilded

ar the glass, one hand pressed lightly to its cold surface, watching the world she wasn't allowed to touch. Far below, New York pulsed with life, honking taxis, sharp laughter from sidewalk cafés,

her father's approach. It was never just footsteps. Wit

mother when you stan

round. "Is that meant

n, his voice sharpened. "Tonight, you'll wear the

rled against t

meet someon

the grand piano, his face a map of power and age, sharp cheekbones, greying temples, and

" she

y, leaving his answer in the a

sa Moretti fastened the heavy emerald necklace around h

"Don't ask questions tonight," Rosa murmured, avoiding Alessia

ghter or an

e a Mo

th answer

st, demure in design but unmistakably valuable. Her hair had been styled into lo

arble staircase like a

ing the door, tension in their shoulders and guns under their jac

e Ro

eir, The Brooklyn-born prince of blood and silence, And now, standing before her in a tai

dn't

here was no warmth in them, only calculation. His gaze flicked over her, asses

e said, voice

who yo

like a wall, "You two will get

aightened, "Why don

ed his head.

, The trade, Whateve

d himself quickly. "Marriage, Alessia. To unite our bl

t start

suddenly, "But yo

g. "And what are you sacrificing

lightly, though it was

s defiant, and his unreadabl

hands, "Let's have

ge had alrea

ouched wine in her hand. Below, the city shimmered like a thousand burning lies, H

o would be

inspecting a chess piece before moving it into sacrifice. She was no stranger to bein

ned, She didn't need to

be here," she

e," Dante replied,

hat how you think this works? You

to push into her skin. "I think," he said, "you know the game we're playi

o, You're starting to sound like

first time that night, something flickered in

bite the w

ithout an

the night, whispered to herself,

hadows through the halls. Her father's voice echoed through the house, shouting orders in cl

rop, But the moment she hea

e, Rinaldo, her father's consiglier

od, I don't need ano

Ale

arn, She a

really think he doesn't sus

s breath

"He suspects, But suspicio

She ducked behind a pi

died when she was seventeen, Officially an acc

hat Dante wasn't ma

here

the middle of a battlefi