Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 171 - Chapitre 180

The taxi pulled away from Fiumicino Airport, leaving Lyra behind in the chaos of the arrivals hall.She stood there for a moment, her suitcase beside her, completely disoriented. Around her, travelers moved with purpose, families reuniting, businessmen rushing to meetings, people who knew where they were going.Lyra had no idea where she was.Or rather, she knew where she was geographically. She was in Rome. She was back in the city that had been her sanctuary once before, when she was twenty and running away from her life in New York.But emotionally, she was completely lost.She pulled out her phone and ordered an Uber, watching as the app calculated the distance to her apartment. Seventeen minutes away. She'd lived there for two years before moving back to New York. She'd once bult a life here before.The apartment was hers. She'd kept it when she went back to the States. Had paid the rent every month even though she wasn't there, because some part of her had known that she might n

Of course she knew that. She'd always known that. But hearing it stated so plainly, so simply, made it real in a way it hadn't been before.LYRA: I've ruined everything. I left him and my family and now I'm in Rome alone and I can't stop thinking about how much I've messed up.DARKVEIL: What do you want to do now?Lyra stared at that question for a long time.What did she want to do?She wanted to go back to bed. She wanted to wake up and find out this was all a nightmare. She wanted to be back in the penthouse with Damien, wrapped up in him, his darkness and his love and his possession all around her. She wanted to see her mother's face without seeing the disappointment. She wanted to undo the last forty-eight hours.But she couldn't do any of those things.LYRA: I don't know. For now I just want to get enough rest and clear my head. That's all. I can't think about any of this right now. I can't figure out what comes next. I just need time.DARKVEIL: That's fair. You need to take car

The morning sunlight filtered through the dining room windows of the Nightbane estate, casting everything in warm, golden light.Isabella sat at the head of the long dining table, her coffee growing cold in front of her. She hadn't slept properly since Lyra left. Her face showed it, the dark circles under her eyes, the way her hands shook slightly as she lifted her coffee cup.Victor was beside her, reading the morning newspaper without really seeing the words. He was going through the motions of normalcy, but there was a tension in his jaw that hadn't been there before. They were waiting for Karla. She'd asked to have breakfast with them this morning. Something in her tone had suggested it was important.When Karla arrived, she was dressed impeccably in business casual, a crisp blouse and tailored pants. She looked composed, put-together, like she'd been rehearsing this conversation in her head since Lyra left yesterday.She sat down across from them and poured herself orange juice,

"So what are you saying?" Lyra asked, feeling defensive. "That I shouldn't have come?""No, darling," Sophia said. "I'm saying that running away is just a symptom. The real problem is that you're so afraid of disappointing people that you disappoint them by not showing up at all. You're so afraid of making the wrong choice that you make no choice at all. And that's not strength, love. That's just fear wearing a different mask."Lyra didn't respond. Couldn't respond. Because her aunt was right. Completely, utterly right."Now," Sophia continued, her tone shifting to something more practical. "I want you to come see me this weekend. Pack a bag, get on a train, and come to my house. We're going to talk about this properly. Over wine and food. Like civilized people.""I don't know if I'm ready..." Lyra started."I don't care if you're ready," Sophia said firmly. "I'm your aunt and I'm telling you to come. Saturday. Be on a train Saturday morning. Can you do that for me?""Yes," Lyra heard

Lyra set down her spoon."What do you want to know?" she asked carefully."Everything," Sophia said. "Tell me everything, and don't edit it. Don't make it sound prettier or less complicated than it actually is. Just tell me the truth."So Lyra did.She told her aunt about the night she'd realized her feelings for Damien were more than sibling affection. She told her about his possessiveness and his darkness and the way his love felt like drowning.And she told her about how much she loved him. How completely and utterly he'd consumed her.Sophia listened without interrupting. She drank her wine and ate her panna cotta and let Lyra talk until there was nothing left to say.When Lyra finished, Sophia was quiet for a long moment.Then she stood up and took Lyra's hand."Come with me," she said. "There's something I want to show you."***They went upstairs to Sophia's study, a room filled with books, art, and photographs. On one wall was a collection of images spanning decades. Family ph