The silence that followed Veritas's revelation was suffocatingdense and clinging, like smoke rising from a burning city
Mariluna couldn't breathe.
Celestina.
That name didn't belong to her.
Or… did it?
Lorenzo said nothing, but his body had gone rigid, every muscle alert, tense, like a lion who had caught the scent of betrayal.
"Explain," she demanded, her voice cutting through the air sharper than the dagger clenched tightly in her gloved hand.
Veritas let out a slow, amused laugh and stepped forward lazily. "You really have no idea, do you?"
"I'll carve the truth from your bones if I have to," she hissed.
Lorenzo's mouth twitched, almost a smile, but not quite.
Veritas lifted his hands in mock surrender. "You should be thanking me, Celestina. You were never just the daughter of some dead company man. Sebastian Valez? He was a front. The real power was always your mother."
Mariluna froze.
"My mother was a teacher."
Veritas grinned. "She was the firstborn of the Unblooded Court. A bloodline untouched by the oaths binding the Five Families. That's why the Rossi needed the Valez line. It wasn't about legacy, it was about immunity."
The words dropped like gallows ropes around her.
"No," she murmured.
But something deep inside her stirred in response. Something… remembered.
A lullaby in a tongue she'd never learned.
The way her mother's eyes shimmered during thunderstorms.
The hushed whispers of the nurses the day she was born, how she hadn't cried.
Veritas's grin widened. He could sense her uncertainty and thrived on it.
"You're not just powerful, girl. You're freedom. You're chaos. And if you ever awaken fully, Lorenzo won't be your captor anymore."
He stepped in closer, eyes gleaming. "He'll be your slave."
That's when Lorenzo moved.
Faster than thought, the Rossi dagger sliced across Veritas's chest.
The man staggered backward, blood blooming across his shirt, yet he laughed, even through the pain.
"It begins," he gasped, his eyes wild. "The war begins."
Outside the compound
Cassandra was hurried into the SUV, draped in a black cloak, with David by her side. She glanced back at Mariluna as the vehicle sped away, her face twisted in a storm of confusion and rage.
Mariluna stood still in the wind, stars spinning madly above her.
Lorenzo remained silent, the bloody dagger limp in his grasp. Veritas had collapsed into unconsciousness, laughing, and Lorenzo hadn't said a single word since.
At last, Mariluna turned to him.
"What did he mean?"
Lorenzo had never lied to her. Not once.
"Your mother took the name Valez by marriage. But before that, she was something far older. Something forbidden."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't believe it. Not at first."
"And now?"
He looked at her with something unreadable in his eyes, like he was seeing a blade unsheathing itself beneath a veil of silk.
"Now I believe it."
That night
The estate had returned to its eerie stillness.
Cassandra had been sedated and locked away in the medical wing. Lorenzo had ordered that no one was to speak with her. Veritas lay imprisoned beneath the eastern cellar, behind layers of steel and spells.
Mariluna stood alone on her balcony, eyes lifted to the stars.
She didn't hear Lorenzo enter the room.
"You used me," she said quietly.
"Yes."
"You lied."
"I did."
"You dragged me out of my world and caged me in yours."
He stepped closer, voice unflinching. "I regret nothing."
She turned then, bathed in moonlight, her gaze sharp and burning.
"You should."
He held her stare for a long, tense moment.
Then he asked, "Do you want to leave?"
She blinked at him.
"You can," he said. "I'll have David take you wherever you want. New city. New name. You vanish."
"And Cassandra?"
"She'll be sent to your uncle… in pieces."
Mariluna flinched.
Lorenzo came closer, his voice lower now. "This is who I am, Mariluna. I protect what's mine. I destroy what threatens it. And you… you are mine."
She looked at him, steady and unreadable.
Then she reached into her pocket, and drew out the ring.
The Blood Veil.
The legacy of the Valez. The curse of the Unblooded. The link to the Rossi.
She slid it onto her finger.
And something deep within her stirred.
Across the city
An ancient phone rang in a shadowed room.
A hand picked it up.
"She put on the ring," a voice whispered.
On the other end, a cold, feminine laugh.
"Then the prophecy is sealed."
"What happens now?"
"She will either rule us… or destroy us."
Mariluna stood facing Lorenzo.
His eyes were locked on the ring now resting on her hand.
"It chose you," he said softly.
"No," she whispered.
"I chose it."
A thunderclap tore the sky apart.
And in that moment, Lorenzo understood:
She would never be his prisoner again.
She was becoming something infinitely more dangerous. His equal.