r clock echoing through the empty halls. Dante Moretti sat alone in his study, the city

eal sealed. But as he stared into the flickering flame of the sin

Val

rse and a prayer

e as dangerous, something in him had shifted. Something he

y had been the Moretti's enemy for decades, a wound that

never ha

ugh to burn down the entire city if she ever let herself go. And maybe that was

that ever made him wa

ed. But as he sat there, the memory of her red dress, the f

ed against the po

man who wa

second stretched-tau

ring he'd infiltrated for information. She had been a shadow in the co

mething inside

Not hate. So

pec

fe

a storm, and sto

e was h

s like victory and m

hadows dancing around him as if

with a wife who hated him? W

t was the

only one who cou

crept acros

ar vows-but he a

fixed on the window where the city pulsed below. Her heart stil

he ceremony. The kiss that

she felt the weight of the deal

ated

ed to ha

he truth clawed out, she mi

ge of the red silk gown,

ks he ow

s no one's

ved into a b

n Dante

, footsteps quiet

nt

knock. N

eased open and he stepped insid

aze, fierce a

ce was steady, but the ques

shoved into pockets. "C

n't

nreadable expression she

here to

n eyebrow. "

ta

s edge. "After a day like

own. "I want to

pped, betrayi

rt w

hing r

landed l

back, wary b

ea

old prince of the Moretti legacy. But you-" His voice soften

breath

new. Da

l me thi

can't keep

e stretche

nce, his hand brushing her

to stop,"

efenses

r head, bare

n't

devil behind the vows

e and a challenge. The fire in Aria's veins flickered dangerously, but sh

voice rough but steady. "You're the devil in a s

y. "Good. I lik

tapping like a drum on the glass. The night had shifted; it no longer felt

ria's voice cracked, raw with

urfacing. "Because I was supposed to hate you. Because this,

he vulnerability he buried benea

lowly, "I can't lose

etween them, hea

. "So what now? Do we pretend to be enemies fo

w, dangerous grin. "I say we b

ween them crackling with unspoke

souls danced on the edge of fire and ice,