I watched him from the shadows, a ghost in my own story. Three years had passed since the fire, a lifetime since I had last seen Dante Moretti in the flesh. From my vantage point behind Leo Luca, the man who had given me a new name and a new purpose, I had an unobstructed view of the monster who had unmade me.
He was thinner. The sharp lines of his jaw were more pronounced, and there were shadows under his eyes that hadn't been there before. He wore his tailored suit like armor, but I could see the cracks. I had spent years studying his every micro-expression, his every tell. I saw the hollowness in his gaze, the slight tremor in his hand as it rested near the pistol at his waist. He looked like a king ruling over an empire of ash. My ash.
The name they gave me, *Umbra*, was fitting. I w
