The courtyard still smoldered. Ash’s fortress, once a monument to control and fire, now throbbed like a wounded beast, twisted steel groaning, molten streaks dripping from shattered balconies. Bianca stood among the remnants, daggers slick with soot and blood. Ash was nearby, eyes molten copper, muscles coiled as if ready to strike.And yet, the stranger, the one who had appeared like smoke, was gone.Vienna’s ruins whispered, carrying a new threat on the wind. Bianca knew it before her eyes confirmed it: signs of movement in the shadows organized, precise, and unseen. A faction she had not accounted for had emerged from the ashes.They called themselves the Crimson Pact, inheritors of Francesca’s clandestine network. Where Bianca and Ash had relied on fire and loyalty, this new force relied on stealth, intelligence, and whispered fear. Soldiers moved like ghosts through the ruins, leaving no trace but fear.Bianca crouched atop a crumbling wall, scanning the horizon with eyes sharpen
Last Updated : 2025-10-27 Read more