Six months.
That was how long it took to rebuild the shattered dining hall, replace the blood-stained marble floors of the estate, and completely annex the territories previously held by the Moretti family. The purge had been brutal, swift, and entirely absolute. The commission, terrified by the sheer, unmitigated violence Dante had unleashed upon his enemies, bowed their heads and retreated into the shadows, offering zero resistance to his absolute consolidation of power.
The city was quiet. It was the heavy, suffocating quiet of a kingdom that knew exactly who sat on the throne.
And tonight, that throne was being officially shared.
I stood in the vestibule of the oldest Gothic cathedral in the city. The massive stone structure had been closed to the public for the evening, secured by
