CROWN OF BULLETS

SELENE

Adrian left his father’s study with his jaw tight, the echoes of Cole’s voice still ricocheting in his skull. Weakness has no place in my bloodline. That was always Cole’s sermon—cold, sharp, repeated until it clung to Adrian’s ribs like frost.

The mansion’s corridors felt like a mausoleum. Portraits of dead men who wore power like armor stared down at him, each frame a reminder of the legacy he was supposed to uphold. But Adrian wasn’t his father. He wasn’t Cole.

And yet… the old man had a grip on him that Adrian couldn’t shake. Not because of love. Not because of loyalty. But because every shadow in this city bent to Cole’s will, and Adrian—whether he liked it or not—was still tethered to that empire.

When he finally reached his room, he loosened his tie, staring into the mirror. He didn’t see himself. He saw his father’s ghost in the set of his jaw, the steel in his eyes. And he hated it.

But then, like a fracture through the silence, her face cut into his mind. The girl. The little shadow who didn’t flinch, who didn’t bow her head, who met Matteo’s cruelty with something almost… dangerous.

Adrian pressed a hand against the mirror, a bitter laugh escaping. He didn’t even know her name. And yet, somehow, she felt like the only person in this godforsaken city who didn’t already belong to his father.

And maybe that was why she terrified him more than Cole ever could.

She sat in the back of the cab, fingers drumming lightly against the leather seat, watching the city blur past. Streetlights smeared into streaks of gold and red on the glass, but her eyes weren’t really seeing them. They were fixed on memory. On him.

Adrian.

He didn’t know what he was stepping into. He thought she was just some girl with sharp eyes and a sharper tongue. A reckless stray who had wandered into his world. He didn’t know the blood she carried. He didn’t know the weight of her silence.

She almost smiled. Almost.

Her father—Cole. That name was poison in her mouth. He thought he had erased everything. Buried sins under new names and a polished empire. But she remembered. Every scream. Every shadow that stretched across her childhood. The fire he left behind.

And now she carried her revenge in quiet, steady breaths. She didn’t need to tell Adrian who she was. Not yet. She didn’t need to reveal that every step closer he took was a step into her trap.

Adrian wasn’t the enemy. He was the string she would pull to unravel Cole’s entire kingdom.

Her hand tightened in her lap. For now, she would play the quiet shadow, the girl who intrigued him. She would let him circle her, let him believe he was in control.

But one day, soon, she would stand before Cole. And when she did, she would make him choke on the name he had given himself.

She whispered her own name under her breath, low and venomous, as if sealing a vow.

“Selene.”