(Alessandro’s POV)
I stood before the seamless black steel door, the only modern thing in this mausoleum of decaying grandeur. On the other side was my brother, the corrupted reflection of my own face, the serpent who had tried to poison my world. The hunt was over.
My men were in position, silent specters in the dusty, velvet-draped ruins of the orchestra level. Matteo, to my left, held a small, specialized breaching charge, no bigger than his hand. It wouldn’t blow the door off its hinges; it would deliver a precise, high-frequency sonic blast designed to shatter the biometric scanner’s delicate internal mechanisms. It was loud, but surgical.
I took a deep breath, the taste of Isabella’s kiss still a ghost on my lips, her final words echoing in my mind. Don’t let them make you one of
