Semua Bab The Devil's Vow #1: Crimson Promises: Bab 71 - Bab 80

The battlefield was behind us, but its ghosts would never truly leave. The scent of blood still clung to the air, the weight of death pressing down on our shoulders. The echoes of gunfire had faded, but in my mind, I could still hear them—sharp, brutal reminders of the life we had chosen. Damian stood beside me, his grip on my hand firm. Neither of us spoke as we walked through the wreckage, stepping over shattered glass and fallen bodies. The war was over, but the world had not magically pieced itself back together. Victory did not mean peace. Not for people like us. I squeezed Damian’s hand, a silent reminder that he wasn’t alone. He glanced down at me, his cold blue eyes softening—just a little. He was exhausted. Not physically—no, Damian Volkov was built for war, trained to endure. But this was a different kind of exhaustion. One that settled deep into the bones, one that sleep could never truly erase. I understood it because I felt it, too. What Comes After War?

The taste of victory was bittersweet. Though the war was over, its ghosts still clung to us like a second skin. Damian had won, but the cost was heavy, and the man who stood beside me now was not the same man who had fought tooth and nail to bring our enemies to their knees. He was restless. Always watching, always waiting. I could see it in the way his shoulders never fully relaxed, in the way his fingers twitched toward his gun whenever someone entered a room too quickly. He didn't sleep much, and when he did, his nightmares were worse than before. The war had ended. But for Damian, the battle was far from over. The Weight of Paranoia I found him in his office, pacing like a caged animal. His shirt sleeves were rolled up, revealing the scars that lined his forearms—some old, some fresh. His jaw was clenched, his eyes dark as he read over reports from his men. “They're still out there,” he muttered under his breath. “Scattered, but not gone.” I leaned against the doorway, arms

The night air was crisp, the soft whispers of the wind barely making a sound against the distant hum of the estate. Damian and I stood there, close enough that I could feel the steady rise and fall of his chest, his presence enveloping me in a way that felt like everything was finally falling into place. The world outside, with all its chaos and threats, seemed so far away at this moment. All that mattered was the man standing before me—the man I had chosen, the man who had chosen me. There was no longer any room for denial, no more fights against the inevitable. Our love had become something undeniable, something neither of us could ignore any longer. I could feel his gaze on me, his eyes dark and intense, full of a mix of emotions I didn’t quite understand but welcomed with open arms. His fingers brushed against my cheek, his touch gentle but firm, as if he were grounding me, keeping me from floating away into the uncertainty that always seemed to lurk around us. "You’re quiet,

I thought we had already faced the worst. But the truth, as it always does, had a way of finding us when we least expected it. I never imagined that the quiet moments, the ones where I thought Damian and I could finally breathe and build a future together, would be interrupted by the very thing that had torn us apart in the first place. It started with Viktor. The man whose presence sent a ripple of unease through my entire body. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something about him wasn’t right, even if Damian refused to say more. Every conversation, every glance, only confirmed that there was more beneath the surface than he had ever told me. And now, I stood on the precipice of something much darker than I could have ever imagined. The betrayal had already begun, and I hadn’t even seen it coming. Damian and I spent the next few days reeling from Viktor’s visit, his cryptic words echoing in my mind. He had promised us that the truth would come to light, that everything we thoug

The first few weeks after everything settled felt like a dream. I was no longer waking up to the harsh, cold reality that had been my life for so long. The weight of the violence, the bloodshed, the constant threat of betrayal—it was all gone. At least, for the moment. We had made it through the storm, and now, Damian and I stood at the beginning of something entirely new. Something we had never imagined for ourselves. A life free of fear, of control, and of the ties that had once bound us to a world of darkness. But as we began to rebuild, I couldn’t shake the feeling that everything around us was still changing. Damian had always been strong, always the unshakeable leader, but now there was a softness in him. A change that I couldn’t put into words, but that I felt in every interaction, every quiet moment between us. He wasn’t just the head of the Volkov family anymore—he was something more. And so was I. When I first met Damian, I had felt like an outsider. I had been brought int