Alle Kapitel von bride of vengeance : Kapitel 31 – Kapitel 40

Valeria's POV I couldn't breathe. I stood frozen at the base of the Moon Tower, the letter still crumpled in my fist, staring at a face I hadn't seen in years. A face I'd buried, along with everything else I'd loved, on the night my whole world burned down around me. The scar above his left eyebrow. The way his jaw looked at the edges. The exact shade of brown in his eyes, warm even in moonlight. Everything about him belonged to Gabriel Montenegro. My father. The man who died when I was still small enough to hide beneath floorboards and believe, somehow, that staying quiet could save him. Tears filled my eyes before I could stop them, spilling down my cheeks without permission, my whole body trembling in a way twelve years of training had never prepared me for. I took a step forward, my hand reaching out on its own, my voice breaking on the single word that mattered more than anything else in that moment. "Father?" The man's expression shifted. Something soft crossed hi

Valeria's POVThe crystal felt colder than I expected, cold enough that I nearly dropped it the moment it touched my palm. Santiago watched me carefully as I turned it over in my fingers, studying the faceted surface, the strange way light seemed to bend and pool inside it rather than simply reflecting off the edges."What exactly is this?" I asked, though something in the back of my memory already stirred with a faint, uneasy recognition."Memory magic," Santiago said. "Rare. Forbidden, in most kingdoms, for exactly the reason you're about to see."I frowned, my mind reaching for the fragment of knowledge trying to surface. Then it clicked, sudden and cold. I'd heard whispers of this once, years ago, during my training — old stories about crystals capable of capturing and replaying memories exactly as they happened, unaltered by time or grief or the mind's own tendency to soften painful edges."I stole this from the people who wanted your entire family erased," Santiago said quietly.

Valeria's POVThe attacker crashed through the broken window a heartbeat later, moving with a speed that told me instantly this wasn't some ordinary soldier sent to rough us up. This was someone trained. Someone skilled. Someone who knew exactly what they were doing, every movement economical, deliberate, honed through years of practice rather than raw aggression.Masked. Fast. Deadly.They weren't looking at me. I registered that almost immediately, some cold, calculating part of my brain cataloguing the details even as my heart pounded against my ribs. Their eyes, visible through the narrow slit in the mask, stayed locked on Santiago the entire time. Not on Alejandro's territory, not on the throne, not even on me, the supposed target of every note left beside every dead body so far.They wanted Santiago.The attacker lunged, blade flashing silver in the moonlight streaming through the shattered window, and I moved without thinking, stepping between them and Santiago, my own dagger a

Valeria's POVThe tower door exploded inward with a force that sent splinters flying across the room, several sharp pieces striking the nearest assassin hard enough to draw a fresh curse from behind his mask.Alejandro stormed through what remained of the doorway, and for a moment, I barely recognized him. His eyes glowed molten gold, brighter and more intense than I'd ever seen them, bright enough that they seemed to cast their own faint light across the dust-choked room, and his claws had extended fully, black and gleaming, ready to tear through anything that stood in his path. His shoulders had broadened somehow, his whole frame carrying an aura of barely restrained violence that made even the air around him feel dense and dangerous.For a split second, his gaze found mine across the chaos of the room.Relief flashed across his face, sharp and immediate, unmistakable even in the dim, dust-choked light, his eyes flicking briefly to the blood soaking through my sleeve where the assas

Unknown POVThe hidden door groaned open, ancient stone grinding against ancient stone, a sound that hadn't echoed through this chamber in longer than most living memories could account for.The hooded figure stepped through slowly, their boots silent against a floor untouched by dust despite the years, as though something in this place refused to let time settle the way it settled everywhere else. Torches lined the walls, but none of them burned. Instead, a faint, sickly green light pulsed from somewhere deep within the stone itself, breathing gently like something alive rather than something built.The figure crossed the chamber without hesitation, moving with the ease of someone who had walked this same path more times than they could count, each visit carving the route deeper into memory until it required no thought at all.At the center of the room stood the coffin.Crystal, flawless and clear, carved with such precision that not a single seam or joint marred its surface. Inside,