Chapter Seven: A coin and a warning.

**Amelia's POV**

The echoes of shots remained in my bones. For hours no one had fired even a single shot, yet the noise persisted within me now, buried behind my pulse.

I need to breath.

The cold metallic handle biting into my palm like a caution I chose to ignore, I did not seek for permission. I said nothing. I slipped out the rear doors of the west corridor. Outside, fog covered the ground, thick and silver like whispered secrets.

My lungs were burned by the air.

Still I walked.

Every step down the twisting stone road drove me away from the house and toward something silent. Something untouched. With their lights dim and flickering, iron lanterns stood guard along the path. Frost stuck to the hedges like breath taken too long.

I heard the delicate splash of water nearby. Concealed from a fountain view.

The more distance I went, the more the building behind me looked vanished.

And that was when I found it.

A garden.

Wild, overgrown, stashed between two ivy-choked walls. Stubborn. Black roses intertwined with white lilies. Thorns that resemble teeth. Near the middle sat a wrought-iron bench, kissed with shade and frost.

Entering slowly, as though recalling a memory not mine, I walked in.

This did not appear like Nico's house.

This was gentle. Quieter. Feminine.

I walked across the moss-covered stones, grabbed the bench, and drew my knees to my stomach.

The silence in this place was oppressive. not quiet, buried. It was as though something was still alive under the earth.

Something the house had forgotten.

Or choose to forget.

I didn't sense the eyes until it was too late.

Heat on my skin. a tingling down my backbone.

I spun around.

She was on her way to meet me already.

Celine

Nico's ex.

Her long black coat trailed behind her like a shadowy shadow with edges. She traveled at every step on purpose. Every inch of her yelled control. Her ice-blue eyes pinned me like I was a mystery she already knew the answer to.

She didn't laugh.

She did not welcome me.

She examined me as though I were decaying.

"Well," she said, her voice smooth and frail like fragile glass. "You're braver than I thought."

I rose gradually, breath caught. "Excuse me?"

"roaming out here." No guards. No backup. Into her yard.

My eyebrows creased. "Her?"

"Nico's mother," she replied with a shrug, "used to sit right there every day before she passed away."

The cold struck more forcefully than the wind.

I stood from the bench as though it burnt me. "I... I didn't know."

Stepping closer, she commented, "Of course you didn't know." "But it's fitting truly."

I blinked. “Fitting?”

"That you would easily sink into another person's home.”

My jaws snapped shut. "What should that mean?"

Sharp and humourless, she grinned.

"You weren't called here, little lamb. You were given, like a ransom note.

My chest constricted. “I didn’t choose this.”

"No," she said, circling me like a vulture. “But you still stay. Right?”

I did not respond. I had no idea how.

Celine approached closer. Her voice subsided, poison leaking in.

"I know your type. Gentle speech. Sad eyes. Acting all innocent and naive. Girls like you walked as if your pain makes you special.

She leaned in, her eyes flaming.

“You think Nico sees you?”

"I don't think anything," I snarled, fists clenched.

“Oh, but he does,” she hissed. “That’s the actual problem.”

She paused in front of me. "You've been here what, like three days? And he's already eyeing you like you're the final remnant of brightness he hasn't extinguished."

I swallowed tough.

"He feels nothing for me."

Her laugh was sour, empty.

"Then you're even dumber than you look."

My body tightened. My heart was pounding against my bones.

Celine moved in so close. I could feel her breath on my skin.

"I was present when he lost all." I contributed in his creation of this empire. Watched him bury men twice his size. You think you're prepared for that world?"

“I’m not scared of him,” I lied. She leaned toward me and whispered against my cheek.

"Then you ought to be."

We stood glued in a frozen time. Two women erecting a garden over spirits. Neither moving. Not blinking either.

Then...

I heard a commotion.

From behind the vines.

Subtle. Bad.

Without turning her eyes from the hedge, Celine moved her hand toward the holster under her coat.

I turned just as a person emerged.

Tall. Sharp suit. Black gloves. A scar cut along the side of his jaw as if to be a signature.

He smiled, but it didn't make it to his eyes.

He wasn't shocked to find us.

He seemed like he had been holding out.

Three more men materialized behind him like shadows peeling from the wall.

Celine raised her voice. "This is private property."

The man smiled. His eyes moved away past her onto me.

He said, "You're prettier than the images," but I guess that is how things are when they are close up."

My heart sank. Cold settled in my breast.

photos?

He knew me.

Celine drew her gun.

The man didn’t even flinch. “Relax. I’m not here for you.”

“Then you’re already dead,” she growled.

He only tilted his head.

“I’m just delivering a message.”

He stepped forward and dropped something onto the bench.

A silver coin.

Old. Ornate. Etched with a crest I didn’t recognize.

But Celine did.

Her eyes widened. Just for a second. Then her jaw locked tight.

“What the hell do you want?” she snapped.

The man looked directly at me.

“I came to remind the Valente heir…”

His smile twisted.

“That blood isn’t done bleeding.

And the girl he’s keeping warm?

She belongs to someone else.”

Silence.

Celine’s gun rose fully. “I’ll count to three.”

But he didn’t flinched.

He stared at me one last time.

Tell Nico…” He stopped.

"Tell him his brother is still alive."

Then...

They disappeared.

Back into the shrub like smoke.

Gone.

Not one noise. No record.

Celine froze in place.

And she spun toward me, her face blazing in anger.

“What did you do?” she yelled.

“I.. I don't know him,” I stammered.

“Then why was he talking to you?"

I screamed, voice cracking, "I don't know!" "I don't know anything!"

She grabbed my arm harshly. "Don't lie to me. I don't care about your innocent appearance. If Nico yearns for you. This house will burn with him.

"Get inside. And keep your mouth shut.

"I have to tell him.."

"No," she retorted angrily. "If he discovers who that was, he would murder anything that breathes."

Celine grabbed the silver coin off the bench and stomped off.

I lingered back.

The roses were stirred by the wind.

The garden shook.

I gazed at the gate where the men had vanished. My heartbeat would not level. I'm not sure whether to inform Nico about what just happened. Or just be quiet.