The city’s cold breath wrapped around Lorenzo as he stepped out from the shadows, the weight of the night pressing down on him like a vise. Every muscle throbbed with exhaustion, every thought tangled in a web of betrayal and blood.
Alessia was silent beside him, but the tension radiating from her was a living thing — taut, dangerous, ready to snap.
They had barely escaped Celeste’s trap, but the threat wasn’t over. It was only beginning.
“Where do we go from here?” Alessia’s voice was rough, brittle like glass.
Lorenzo’s eyes narrowed, the darkness inside him flaring. “We find the traitor. We end this.”
She shivered, but didn’t back down. “And if the traitor finds us first?”
He turned to her, cold and fierce. “Then we make sure they regret it.”
Their alliance was fragile — stitched
