All I want is to be free.
“You think this is what Ciro died for? You think you can just—”
I cut him off. “Ciro died because he followed the rules.”
Leone blinks, like he’s been slapped. “You’re not above them.”
“No,” I say, “but I’m not under them, either.”
He’s trembling, the gun forgotten. I realize he’s older than I ever let myself see.
“You deserve to rest too, Leone.” My voice is soft, that part of my heart that still cares trying to reach into whatever humanity he has left. “You go home, get better, I will come home at some point but not right now.”
I take a breath.
“Please try understand. Tell my father that for once, someone touched the untouchable.”
The words hang in the air, ugly and beautiful at the same time.
Leone’s face folds in on itself. He looks away, blinking hard, and for a moment I think he might actually shoot Bam. But he just wipes the blood from his mouth and turns.
“He’ll be back for you,” Leone says. “You can’t shed yourself of your duties. Or your name.”
“I’m not trying to shed it,” I say. “I’m making it my own.”
He laughs, broken. “It doesn’t work like that, Lia.”
But I know better now.
Leone walks out the door and I turn to Bam, who hasn’t moved. I take his hand, and pull him closer. His fingers close around mine, tight, like he’s afraid I’ll vanish if he lets go.
“I choose you,” I whisper, loud enough for everyone to hear. “But I’m not your prey. I’m your equal.”
His eyes go dark. He pulls me in, slow, giving me time to run, but I don’t. I tip my chin up and meet his mouth halfway, letting him taste the decision and the future I just burned my bridges to create.
The kiss is brutal, a claiming and a surrender. He bites my lip, I claw his neck, and for a moment the world is nothing but the twoof us, circling each other like animals who know exactly what they want.
He lifts me, arms under my thighs, and I wrap myself around him, not caring that the others are watching. This is our coronation, our wedding, our declaration of war.
“We’ll be at my cabin. Don’t bother us unless necessary.” Bam says as he walks us out the door and starts to walk down the path towards another cabin.
My head sags against his chest and his heartbeat thumps against my cheek. He is mine, and I am his. In all the hate, the anger, the bitterness, we carved out a piece for love too.
This is how you make your own legacy.
You burn down the old world, and build the new one out of passion and choice.
And if anyone tries to take it from me, they’ll have to go through both of us.
Chapter 16: Bam
Thecolddoesn’tbite.It mauls. Snow is just starting, sharp little teeth against my face as I shoulder open the door and carry Dahlia over the threshold. Her body fits against me like she was made for it, and maybe she was. Everything tonight feels preordained—like we were designed in a lab to fight against the world, then fuck on its ashes.
Dahlia is so small in my arms. She doesn’t resist, doesn’t speak, just curls her hands in the fabric of my shirt, face pressed into the hollow above my heart. I feel her breaths, shallow and fast. I want to tell her it’s okay, that nothing gets through me, but she’s not a fucking child.
The Academy grounds are ruined. Floodlights pop and die in the distance, strobing the quad with sick yellow light. Smoke from the main hall drifts low.
Whatever is left of the Board is going to need major restructuring to fix the Academy before next semester.
