Days crawl past,and the war hasn’t ended, it’s only gone quiet.
I never made it to the roof. Matteo’s message came hours after night swallowed Blackstone whole.
Matteo
It’s not safe. Your cousin’s on you like a leash. Don’t come.
Then it disappeared, like it always does. Erased. No trace we ever touched each other’s worlds.
Since then, Conor’s been everywhere.
A ghost. A warden.
His shadow clings heavier than the walls that cage me.
Wherever I go, he’s there, close enough I feel his breath on my neck. Watching. Waiting. Smiling like he already knows how this ends. He wants to catch Matteo looking at me, talking to me, any reason to report back to my father and Uncle Liam. One slip, and I’m gone. Pulled out of school.
Every corridor, every class, his shadow trails me. My cage isn’t gold anymore. It’s flesh and bone, breathing beside me.
“Whatever the Italians are planning, it involves you,” he said earlier, his fingers biting into my wrist as he dragged me from the east wing.
A chess piece. That’s all I am.
I laughed, because the idea is absurd. I’m nobody. A pawn without power. A daughter traded off like livestock to a man old enough to call me his child.
If this were some Italian scheme, what would they win by breaking me? Hurting me wouldn’t wound my family. It wouldn’t touch their empire.
I’m a girl with no voice, no crown, and soon, no name at all.
Still…Conor’s words rot in my head like poison that refuses to fade.
“This school’s different,”he sneered.“The first guy who looks at you twice, and you’re already ready to spread your legs. They play mind games here, Aoife, and you’re losing.”
His voice lingers, bruising the softest parts of me long after he’s gone.
I haven’t seen Matteo in days, but I feel him like a second heartbeat which refuses to die. He’s there in the quiet, in the soft rush of air when I walk too fast, in the places my mind drifts when I’m alone.
That’s the danger.
Maybe that’s why I haven’t stopped fighting.
I tell myself I’m not afraid, but my own breath betrays me too loud, too quick.
The phone in my pocket buzzes. The vibration hits my skin like an electric shock. I pull it out, my hand trembling.
Unknown Number
You’re not as alone as you think.
“Who’s there?” My voice cracks, swallowed by the dark.
Nothing.
Another vibration.
Unknown Number
Be careful, Aoife. They’re watching.
