All Chapters of Kingdom of Ash and Blood : Chapter 231 - Chapter 240

MATEO The world thought I’d burned to ash. Good. That was the point. The night the De Santis compound went up in flames, I crawled through a half-collapsed tunnel beneath the east wing—bleeding, broken, and clutching the only thing that still mattered: my father’s ledger. The Morettis believed they’d erased my bloodline. But you can’t kill a ghost that already lives in the walls. For months, I lived in the underbelly of Palermo. Changed my name. Changed my face. Learned to breathe again through smoke and vengeance. And now… the world had changed hands. Luca Moretti sat where my father once ruled. Amara Varela—his queen, his weapon—sat beside him. A cartel princess who’d burned her own kingdom to fit his crown. I’d loved her once. Before Luca. Before everything rotted. Now she was the reason my family lay in graves and my name was whispered only in the dark. I watched them from afar—through stolen surveillance feeds and bribed guards. Watched how her hand trembled when she si

AMARA The ruins still burned when dawn came. Gray smoke drifted toward the sea, carrying with it the ghosts of my childhood. Everything smelled of scorched earth and salt — the scent of the past being torn open. I stood among the remains of the De Santis estate, surrounded by guards who didn’t dare speak. My hands were filthy, blood beneath my fingernails, my heart beating too loud. The last explosion had unearthed something beneath the rubble — something the flames couldn’t consume. A vault door. Buried under centuries of ruin. “Open it,” I ordered. Two of Luca’s men moved forward, using saws and iron cutters. Sparks hissed in the morning light. It took nearly half an hour before the seal cracked and the door groaned open. The air that escaped was old — older than any of us had a right to breathe. I stepped inside. The vault was small, circular. Stone walls carved with names and dates. At the center stood a glass coffin. Inside it — a skeleton dressed in decayed silk, a r

AMARA The air smelled like smoke and iron. When I opened my eyes, dawn had broken through the shattered roof of the cathedral. Light poured in, soft and golden, almost merciful. The blood was gone — no trace of it on the stones, no altar, no sound. Just silence. Except for Luca’s voice. “Amara?” I turned slowly. He was kneeling beside me, his hands covered in soot, his face cut and bruised. His eyes— God, those eyes—were wild with fear and relief all at once. “I’m here,” I whispered. He exhaled, his shoulders dropping, and for the first time since the chaos began, I saw him break. His hand came to my cheek, trembling. “You stopped it.” “I think…” I looked around the ruined chamber. “It stopped itself.” Something deep within me felt strange — alive but weightless. Like a thousand chains had been unhooked at once. When I touched the cracked chalice, it disintegrated into dust. The curse — the inheritance — whatever haunted our families, was gone. But peace never comes withou

AMARA The gates of Palermo had never looked so foreign. The banners of the Syndicate — black silk stitched with a gold crown — hung limp in the rain. And beneath them, for the first time in years, came a procession that dared to walk openly through my city wearing the white and crimson of Rome. Three men and one woman, all cloaked, carrying no weapons — but every step they took dripped with threat. The leader bowed slightly when he reached me at the foot of the villa’s marble steps. “Your Majesty,” he said, his accent thick with Vatican restraint. “We come in peace.” “Peace?” I echoed, my voice sharp as glass. “That’s what they called it when they burned this city last time.” He didn’t flinch. “We come not for war, but for balance. The Church requests your audience in Rome. A Council of Sanctity has been called. You are named in its decree.” My laughter cracked through the rain. “Decree? You think I kneel to parchment?” The woman stepped forward then, her hood falling back — s

AMARA Smoke clung to my lungs like a confession I couldn’t exhale. Rome was burning. Not with holy fire, but something older — something that smelled like revenge. From the balcony of the ruined monastery, I watched the Vatican spire crumble into itself. Bells tolled wildly, as if heaven itself was panicking. Below, people ran through the streets, screaming prayers that went unanswered. Luca stood a few paces behind me, bandaged arm resting against the wall, the glow of dying embers painting his jaw in gold and red. The curse was gone — at least, that’s what I told myself. But beneath my skin, I still felt its pulse. Quiet now. Waiting. “You should sit,” Luca said quietly. “If I stop moving, I’ll remember what we just did,” I replied. He stepped closer. “You saved the world, Amara.” A bitter laugh escaped me. “Did I? Look outside. The world looks pretty damned dead to me.” His silence was heavy. I turned to face him. His eyes — those fierce, sea-dark eyes — studied me like