*Chapter 31:
ALESSIA
The air in the lower level room was still thick with dust and the smell of old metal, but it wasn’t the only thing that felt heavy now. Blackwell stood in the doorway like a man who had finally put down a weight he’d been carrying for twenty years, and the silence that followed wasn’t the sharp, dangerous kind from before. It was the kind of silence that comes after a confession you’ve been waiting your whole life to hear.
He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t reach for a weapon. He just looked at the four of us standing together — me between the triplets — and the cold, calculated mask he’d worn since I arrived at BloodNight finally cracked all the way down the middle.
“I’m not your enemy,” he said quietly. The words didn’t echo. They landed, heavy and final, in t
