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CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR

作者: Wren Gray
last update 公開日: 2026-04-09 16:04:24

“ A BURNT CHILD LOVES THE FIRE.”

(FLASH BACK–SEVEN YEARS AGO)

DANTE

"Fuck you." I spit at his feet. "I'll kill you for this. Both of you. I swear to God, I'll make you suffer for—"

My father pulls something from his jacket.

A photograph.

Of Sofia.

Walking to class. Laughing with a friend. Completely unaware she's being watched.

My blood turns to ice.

"Six men," my father says calmly. "Posted in her neighborhood. Watching her. Waiting for my signal."

"No." The word comes out broken.

"If you leav
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    "Family is the people you would burn the world down for, even on the days they drive you completely insane."LUCAOkay so let's recap because somebody needs to, and apparently I am the one elected to do the internal narration here since everyone else is too busy being mysterious and traumatized.Dante was dead. Then he wasn't. Then Marco turned out to be a snake who also got tortured and then kidnapped by some shadowy ninja person who may or may not also be a vigilante with morals, which honestly is a confusing character arc for a guy I just met. Salvatore is missing. My brother got abducted by said tortured snake's torturer, came back completely fine, and refuses to tell me a single thing about it. And now there's a woman in this hospital corridor who Nico apparently met in Spain, gave him a dance that broke his entire central nervous system, and who currently looks like she would end my life without blinking if I made one wrong joke.So basically a normal Tuesday.I lean against the

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    "THE MOMENT YOU THINK YOU HAVE SECURED EVERYTHING IS THE MOMENT YOU FIND OUT WHAT YOU MISSED."DANTEI call Nico at seven forty three.It rings.Once. Twice. Three times.Voicemail.I pull the phone from my ear and look at the screen like it has personally offended me and call again.Rings.Voicema

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    "THE LONGEST DRIVES ARE THE ONES WHERE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DRIVING TOWARD."DANTEI don't remember getting to the car.One moment I am in the corridor of the safe house with Elena's voice still in my ear and the next I am in the passenger seat and Luca is driving and the city is moving past

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    "THE MOMENT YOU THINK YOU HAVE WON IS THE MOMENT THE WORLD REMINDS YOU THAT YOU HAVEN'T."DANTEThe safe house sits on twelve acres outside the city.Most people would not call it a safe house if they knew what the back half of the property was used for. Safe house implies protection, refuge, somew

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    SO IT DOES BOTH AT ONCE."SOFIAThe morning is quieter than most.That is the thing I notice first when I wake up. The particular quality of the light coming through the curtains and the sounds of the house settling around me — Elena moving somewhere downstairs, Isabella's voice talking to one of h

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