All Chapters of The Black Rose: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

ELLIEThe silence after Silas left felt too loud. I sat there on the training mat, my body still shaking from what had just happened, trying to figure out what the hell I'd just done.What I'd wanted to happen.When Silas came back with a towel and water, neither of us said anything. The easy joking around from our training sessions was gone, replaced by something heavy that made it hard to breathe. He handed me the towel without looking at me, his usual cocky attitude nowhere to be seen."Thank you," I whispered, my voice still rough.He just nodded, running a hand through his messy hair. "We should clean up. Training's done for today." He walked up to a locker at the side, pulled out grey cotton pants that looked three sizes bigger and gave it to me. The way he dismissed me hurt more than it should have. I put the pants on with shaking hands, way too aware of him just a few feet away as he picked up the training stuff we'd left all over the floor and then my discarded leggings sil

ELLIE"What do you know about Noir?" I asked Stella once he was gone."Oh, dear," Stella sighed, shaking her head. "The boys all have troubled pasts, but none as sad as Noir's. He was just as closed off as your Elijah when he first came here—all walls and sharp edges, determined not to let anyone get close. Only Lorenzo and Silas know where he really came from, what he went through before they found him. They protect his secrets like they protect each other.""Thank you for telling me what you could," I said, touched by her honesty."You shouldn't take his coldness to heart," Stella continued, her voice becoming softer, more maternal. "Despite what the others say or what he does, he's the sweetest of them all. Under all that darkness and those scars, he has the biggest heart. He just... he's always like this on his birthday."I blinked in surprise. "It's his birthday? Today?""Si, today," Stella confirmed, nodding sadly. "Every year, same thing. He gets moody, withdraws from everyone,

NOIR"No."The word settled like my favorite axe sinking into flesh, and I felt something snap inside my chest. She was still standing there with that fucking cake, she lit it up as she spoke, the candle flame dancing between us, casting shadows across her face that made her look even more beautiful than usual.And that just made everything worse."I had to send Silas out to get a cake because time has already gone by," she said, her voice soft but determined. "I wanted you to blow out your candles before midnight." She smiled, eyes taking me in like they belonged on my skin yet all my sick mind could think about was the look in her eyes if I decided to burn her with that flame she held. The innocence in her voice, the genuine concern—it was like a knife twisting in my gut. She had no idea what this day meant to me, what birthdays had always meant in my world. She thought she was doing something kind, something normal, and that made me want to destroy something."You're a fool if you

ELLIEI woke up with my stomach aching like I'd eaten a horse.The memories came flooding back as I blinked in the bright light—Noir and I had devoured that chocolate cake like we were starving animals competing for the last meal on earth. We'd laughed as we fought over the bigger pieces, frosting smeared on our fingers and probably our faces too. Noir was a monster, they said. The only monster in him last night was a cake monster. One that just needed a little push to put him in higher spirits. After we'd demolished the entire thing, Noir had talked softly about his time in Milan, about what he actually did for the Black Rose. He was their information specialist, the one who could hack into anything, find anyone, make people disappear from databases like they'd never existed and he was also the guy to torture information out of people and tie up loose ends whenever Lorenzo wanted the ends messy.I knew that much from what I'd witnessed. He spoke about it freely with me, and I lis

ELLIE After training, Lorenzo handed me a black phone, brand new and completely secure. "It's encrypted," he explained. "Untraceable. You can call whoever you need to without worrying about Nikolai tracking or hacking it." I stared at the phone in my hands, feeling the weight of it. Freedom, in a way. The ability to connect with my life back home, the life that felt like it belonged to someone else now. A part of me worried about my old phone, those texts between Nikolai and me, everything that led to my second...or was it the third...Kidnapping. "Thank you," I said, meaning it more than he probably realized. Once I was back in my room, I sat on the edge of my bed and stared at the phone for a long moment. There was only one person I wanted to call, only one person who'd been on my mind since this nightmare started. Dylan. My fingers trembled as I dialed her number, the one I knew by heart. The phone rang once, twice, three times. Just when I thought it would go to voi