All Chapters of The Glass Rose : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Lucien’s POVThe world was starting to tilt and spin in a way that made the burning palace look like it was melting into the lake, and I could feel the hot blood running down my arm and soaking into my sleeve until my fingers felt slippery and useless against the grip of my pistol. I knew that I was losing too much fluid and that the shock from the blast was finally catching up to me, but I forced my legs to keep moving because I could see the bright yellow headlights of a dozen SUVs tearing down the main drive toward the ruins. I knew those vehicles belonged to Dante’s personal security and they were coming to finish what the explosion had started, so I grabbed Alessia’s shoulder and pulled her toward the sunken gardens where the thick stone walls and the overgrown hedges offered us a few minutes of cover."We can't stay here by the water because they are going to sweep the shoreline first, so we need to move toward the back of the estate and find a way into the irrigation tunnels

Alessia’s POVThe old tractor finally groaned to a halt in the yard of a secluded farmhouse tucked away in the Tuscan hills and the silence that followed was so heavy that I could hear the engine ticking as it cooled down in the morning mist. I helped Lucien off the fender and he was so weak that his legs nearly gave out the moment his boots hit the dirt, but I managed to get him inside the kitchen where the air smelled like dried herbs and old wood. I sat him down in a sturdy wooden chair and started looking for a first aid kit or at least some clean towels, and I was just about to start boiling some water when my burner phone vibrated on the table with a notification for a new video message. I opened the file with trembling fingers and my breath caught in my throat because I saw Matteo tied to a metal chair in a sterile white room, and although he wasn't screaming he looked so small and terrified that I felt a sharp pain in my chest that was worse than any physical wound."They h

Alessia’s POVThe white dust of the marble quarry was everywhere and it coated the windshield of the stolen car as I drove toward the service entrance, and I felt a strange sense of calm as I pulled on the white lab coat I had taken from the palace medical wing.I had pinned the ID badge of a woman named Dr. Varga to my chest and I kept my head down as I approached the security gate, and the guard just looked at my badge and then at his clipboard before he waved me through without asking a single question because the chaos from Lake Como had clearly left the entire organization in a state of panic.I walked through the heavy pressurized doors and the air inside was filtered and smelled like bleach and cold metal, and I followed the yellow lines on the floor that led toward the primary research level while I kept my hand on the pistol hidden in the deep pocket of the coat."You're late for the shift change and the supervisor is already screaming about the pressure levels in the secondar

Alessia’s POVThe emergency lights in the laboratory flickered once and then died completely, and the sudden darkness was so heavy that I felt like I was being buried alive under the weight of the mountain. I could hear Matteo’s jagged and whistling breath right beside me and I reached out to grab his hand, and his skin was burning with a fever that seemed to be getting worse by the second while the sounds of the gunfire from the upper levels echoed through the vents like a constant roll of thunder. I had managed to grab a single vial of the stabilizer before the room started to collapse, but I knew it was only a temporary fix and that we needed the "Master Strain" stored in the central vault if I wanted to save my brother from the genetic debt our father had left for him to pay."I can't see anything, Alessia, and my chest feels like it’s being crushed by a pile of stones so please tell me we are close to the way out," Matteo whispered and he let out a wet cough that made me pull h

Alessia’s POVThe transition from the suffocating, chemical-choked darkness of the decontamination chamber to the blinding white glare of the quarry surface was so sharp that it felt like a physical blow to my eyes, and I stumbled out of the service tunnel with my arm wrapped tightly around Matteo’s waist while the sound of the mountain collapsing behind us sent a cloud of marble dust billowing into the air. My lungs were burning from the fumes and my dress was a ruined rag of silk and blood, but as I blinked against the morning sun I saw a sleek black helicopter idling on a nearby extraction pad with its rotors whipping the air into a frenzy. Lucien was standing by the open side door with a rifle in his hand and Nico was behind the controls, and the moment he saw us he jumped down and ran across the jagged white stone while he scanned the perimeter for any signs of the Legacy Council’s mercenaries."I thought I heard the whole sub-level go up from the ridge and I was about to go ba