Todos los capítulos de Bound by blood and silk: Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

RAYÉNWe didn’t die in that library. Millaray had melted the floor bolts to the wine cellar lift three days earlier as a contingency, and we dropped into the damp tunnels just as the High Council’s execution squad flooded the room with flashbangs and bullets. But escaping the estate didn’t mean escaping the cage. It only moved the walls closer.Thirty-six hours later, we were hiding in an unmarked safehouse tucked into the granite foothills of the Andes, twenty miles east of Santiago.It was a fortress of poured concrete and iron rebar, with low ceilings that trapped the smell of sweat, rust, and gun oil.I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the scar on my hand resting against the SUV window. Mateo. Alive. Watching me like a specimen under glass.The thought should have comforted me. Instead, it made my stomach knot. A dead brother was easier to mourn than a living one who had chosen to disappear. If Mateo had survived all these years, then every memory I had protecte

RAYÉNThe mirror in the dressing room of the Errázuriz estate didn’t show a bride, a partner, or even a woman who had spent the last hour hiding in a pitch-black basement alcove, waiting for someone to slit her throat.It showed a ghost dressed in liquid emerald silk.The gown was sophisticated in a way that felt almost cruel. High-necked and close-fitting, it fell all the way to the marble floor with a soft, heavy rustle. The back was completely bare, exposing every inch of skin down to the curve of my spine. It had been chosen to show Santiago’s elite that the daughter of the fallen Altiplano empire was whole, unbruised, and completely subdued.They couldn’t see the thin strip of reinforced leather strapped high around my inner thigh.They couldn’t see the razor-thin titanium blade pressed against my skin, cold as the air coming down from the Andes.A heavy step sounded behind me.I didn’t flinch. I simply met his eyes in the mirror.Lautaro stood in the arched doorway, tall and sti

RAYÉNThe screech of tearing iron sounded like a mountain splitting open above us.Lautaro didn’t hesitate. The moment the chain fell and the heavy metal frame dropped, he held me so tight around my waist. He slammed his body into mine, driving us sideways across the marble floor.We hit the stone just as three tons of brass, gold, and cut crystal crashed down where we had been dancing.The explosion was deafening. Glass shattered into countless sharp pieces, spraying across the ballroom. Lautaro covered me completely, his broad back taking the worst of it. His tuxedo absorbed some of the impact, but I felt him flinch when a jagged piece of crystal tore through his shoulder.Dust and plaster rained down around us.“Lautaro,” I gasped, my lungs burning beneath his weight. My hands pressed against his chest, feeling his heart beath pounding beneath my palms. “Get off me”“Stay down.”His voice was rough with adrenaline.He lifted his head. A thin line of blood ran down his left jaw,

LAUTAROThe metallic smell of blood and diesel filled the Santiago night. Downstairs, the steady click of a silver-tipped cane against marble sounded like an executioner’s bell.Before Beatrix could give an order, before the cross-match notification on my screen could become my death warrant, the world exploded.BOOM.The blast came from the northern perimeter. Every stained-glass window on the ground floor shattered. Plaster rained from the ceiling, and the force threw me sideways against the cracked doorframe.“They’re inside!” someone shouted from the foyer.It wasn’t my men. It wasn’t Beatrix’s militia either.Rayén was already standing. Her dark eyes were wide, but the panic was gone. The thin blade hidden beneath her silk gown slid into her palm. She had become still in the way only someone raised around violence could.“Who is that?” she asked over the gunfire.“A second hit squad.”I grabbed her elbow and pulled her back as a 7.62 round tore through the ceiling, sending dust a

RayénTwo minutes.I had spent three years learning how to live without my brother, and now I had two minutes to decide whether the man in front of me was Aconcagua or a ghost someone had built to hurt me."Don't," Lautaro said quietly. His pistol hadn't moved from Conco's chest. "Don't go to him yet.""He's my brother.""He's a man who walked in here after your mother's people did. Think, Rayén."I hated that he was right. I hated it more that my body didn't care. My feet were already on the first step down, my hand sliding along the cold rail, my eyes fixed on that scar. I had stitched that scar. I was fourteen, and Conco had cut himself climbing the wall behind our house to bring me a stolen mango, and I had held the needle with shaking fingers while he laughed at my frown."Say something only he would know," I called down.Conco's mouth twitched. "You still can't eat mango without getting it on your elbows."My throat closed."That's not proof," Lautaro muttered."It is for me."I