All Chapters of Kingdom of Ash and Blood : Chapter 121 - Chapter 124

The sun hadn't risen yet when the call came in. A body had been found outside the eastern wall of the Varela estate — tied to a metal post, bloodied, broken, and left beneath the Varela crest painted in ash. Amara got there first. She stepped out into the cold Sicilian dawn, barefoot, silk robe dragging through the gravel. The air smelled like burnt rubber and salt. The guards parted as she approached. Cassian stood with his head bowed. Luca beside him, jaw locked. And there, at the center of it all— Valerio. Her soldier. Her shadow. The boy with the soft eyes and steel aim. The one who used to sneak Mateo chocolate and sharpen her blades before battle. He was twenty-two. Now he was dead. They’d carved something into his chest. A message in crude lines, burned deep with acid: "Varela blood is not sacred." Cassian turned to her. “It’s the Lorenzis.” “No.” Her voice was ice. “It’s a declaration.” “A trap?” “A warning.” Her eyes didn’t leave Valerio’s face. “They want m

The coordinates came at dawn. Encrypted. Untraceable. Sent from a dead contact known only as Ferryman. One line of text: “She’s alive. Come alone.” Attached: a location deep in the Albanian mountains, where empires went to die and ghosts went to hide. Amara didn’t wait. She packed only a knife, a silenced pistol, and the locket Isabel once left her — the one with a faded photo and a sliver of blood dried beneath the glass. Luca tried to follow. She didn’t let him. “This is mine,” she said. And then she was gone. The safehouse was a stone husk buried into the cliffside. Moss-covered, forgotten by time. Inside, it smelled of lavender, dust, and old sorrow. A nun greeted her at the door. “She doesn’t speak much anymore,” the woman said. “She barely remembers names. But she always said—if a woman with ash in her eyes comes… let her in.” Amara stepped through the threshold. Each breath felt like lead. Then she saw her. Isabel Varela sat by the window, wrapped in a faded s