Chapter 66 – The Return
**** Isabelle’s POV ****
The first thing I notice when I walk through the gates is that nothing smells the same.
It’s faint—something you wouldn’t catch unless you’d lived here long enough—but the air of Dante’s world is sharper now, tinged with the acrid bite of gunpowder and gasoline. I know because those smells have followed me for weeks. They’ve been burned into my skin, my hair, my memory.
I move past the guards without waiting for them to announce me. One of them opens his mouth, recognition flashing in his eyes, but I keep walking. I don’t need permission to be here—not anymore.
The marble steps to the main house stretch before me, immaculate despite everything, but I can still see the ghosts on them—blood trails, shattered glass, the shadows of bodies I
