WAKING UP DIFFERENT

DANTE"Smoke," I say, already moving. My body's still weak but my legs find strength. I didn't know what was left in them. Where?."East side," Julian says, still at the window. "Near the fungus markets. Maybe Ruth's stall. Maybe close to it."My stomach drops at the name. Seraphina's up too, pulling her boots on with shaking hands, her face gone pale."That's near Milo's family too," she says. "Dante, we need to go now.""You just got back," Vittoria says, grabbing my arm. "You collapsed an hour ago. You can't run into a fire.""I'm not lying in bed feeling sorry for myself while people I know burn," I say. "Get the guards moving. Now."SERAPHINAWe reach the Enclave fast, guards clearing the crowded streets ahead of us, and the smoke gets thicker with every turn. Black. Choking. It's in the back of my throat before we even see the flames."There," Julian shouts, pointing.It's not Ruth's stall. It's the old storage house two doors down, empty for years, and the fire's spreading fast

Last Updated : 2026-10-06

WHAT THE CROWN LEFT

ODETTE"Here," I say, my voice cracking with tiredness and something close to disbelief. I slide a brittle sheet of paper across the table to Seraphina and Dante. "Buried under three other files. Not Delacroix records at all. Older. From before my family even existed as a House."Seraphina leans over it, careful with the crumbling edges, and I watch her eyes move fast across the faded ink."What language is this," she asks."Older than the debt-tongue," I say. "Older than anything I've ever properly learned to read. I only know it at all because my grandmother kept one page of it, framed, in her study. She never told me what it said. She only ever called it 'the warning nobody listened to.'""Can you read any of it," Dante asks."Pieces," I admit. "Enough to know it's about someone. A name scratched out so hard the paper's nearly torn through. Whoever did that didn't want anyone finding it again."SERAPHINAI hold my palm just above the page, not touching it, letting my sight settle o

Last Updated : 2026-10-06

All Chapters of THE DEVIL'S LEDGER : Chapter 51 - Chapter 52

WAKING UP DIFFERENT

WHAT THE CROWN LEFT