The rain fell like judgment, battering the estate in merciless waves.
Mariluna stood in the corridor just outside Lorenzo's office, her wrist still tingling where his fingers had gripped it. His voice echoed in her head like a curse:
"I'm trying to save you."
But save her from what?
From the courts?
From the power now surging through her veins?
Or from something deeper, something far more dangerous?
The truth.
It was the truth that tore at her insides now. The truth about her parents. The bombing. The fact that Lorenzo had known all along.
And done nothing.
She couldn't think.
She couldn't breathe.
So she did what she had always done as a child.
She ran.
The basement archives were freezing.
Ancient.
The air reeked of dust and old ink, the shelves lined with metal drawers and forgotten files. Candlelight flickered faintly above her, casting long, warped shadows.
She hadn't been here in years, not since Lorenzo first brought her to the estate and kept her hidden like a secret too dangerous to name. Back then, she'd been locked away. But now, she had access to everything.
And she used it.
Mariluna moved quickly, hands shaking as she rifled through drawers, ignoring everything marked Regale or Rossi. She was looking for something else.
A name she hadn't dared speak in a decade:
Valez.
And finally, she found it, buried in a rusted, unlabeled drawer.
Her father's name. Her mother's.
And a photograph.
She was just a toddler in it, no more than two years old. Her mother's dark hair fell in waves, her father cradled her in one arm, his other hand resting on a document.
Across from them, signing that very document.
Lorenzo Rossi.
She didn't remember walking to his office.
But she remembered bursting through the door.
Lorenzo was standing behind his desk, sleeves rolled up, collar loose. He'd been speaking to David in a low voice, but he stopped the moment he saw her face.
She hurled the file onto the desk.
"What is this?"
He didn't flinch.
"An agreement."
"You signed it. You stood with them."
"I did."
"You watched them die."
"Yes."
The words hit harder than a blade.
David stepped forward. "Luna, there's more, things you don't understand, "
"I don't care," she snapped, eyes locked on Lorenzo. "You let me rot in that house. You let my uncle sell me to you. And all this time… you were in on it."
Lorenzo stepped around the desk.
"I told you," he said quietly, "I needed you broken."
"Why?!"
"Because I was afraid," he said. "Afraid of what you'd become if you were whole."
She stopped breathing.
His voice was low, every word slicing like a blade against his own skin. "Your power doesn't come from the Valez. It comes from your mother's blood.
And when it fully awakens, you won't just be dangerous. You'll be sovereign. Not the kind who wears a crown. The kind they worship. The kind they fear."
"So you kept me locked up," she said, voice hollow.
"I loved you locked up," he said, without flinching.
"And now?"
"I'm terrified of you free."
Meanwhile, deep beneath the city
In the dark of the cell, Veritas knelt, etching a rune into the floor with the edge of a broken nail.
Whispers slithered through the air like steam. Shadows twisted along the walls, watching.
"They're waking," he murmured. "They've tasted her blood. The Unblooded Court stirs."
And with a hiss, the rune beneath him ignited, glowing crimson in the dark.
Back at the estate
Mariluna turned her back on Lorenzo.
"I'm leaving."
He was at the door in two steps, slamming his palm against the frame.
"No."
"You don't control me."
His eyes flared. "I can't let you go."
"You don't own me, Lorenzo."
He leaned in, pressing his forehead to hers, breath uneven.
"No," he whispered. "But I need you."
The words cracked the air like thunder.
"I've built empires, Luna. I've buried kings. I've killed for less than what you've done to me."
"Then kill me," she said, voice trembling.
But instead, he reached up and cradled her face, thumb grazing her cheek with a tenderness that didn't fit a man like him.
"I can't," he said. "Because somewhere between chaining you and breaking you… I fell."
She stared at him, eyes unblinking.
"Then prove it."
A sudden knock shattered the moment.
David rushed in, pale, weapon drawn.
"Sir," he said breathlessly. "It's Veritas."
Lorenzo straightened, all softness gone. "What about him?"
"He's gone."
Mariluna's heart dropped.
David swallowed. "And he left a message. Burned into the wall."
Lorenzo's expression darkened. "What did it say?"
David's eyes shifted to Mariluna, then back.
He recited the words carefully:
"She belongs to us now."