I let out a quiet, unsteady breath, my fingers tightening slightly against the railing.
Who could have guessed?
Who could have ever imagined that the broken, bleeding stranger I had tried so desperately to save would grow into the man he had become?
A man who now held my future—my life—in the palm of his hand.
And somehow...
Impossibly...
My husband.
For tonight...
I would breathe.
That was all I could do.
Chapter 6
ELENA
The Black Veil Society Academy.
The place I had just joined, the first step into whatever life Vincenzo had decided for me.
The academy wasn’t a school. Not really. It was a crucible.
A forge.
A place where men—and now women—were broken, sharpened, and remade into something lethal.
Something unstoppable.
The sleek black car slid over the winding roads of Lombardy, the engine low and throaty, the tires barely making a sound on the asphalt.
My escort—one of Vincenzo’s soldiers—sat silently in the passenger seat, hands resting casually on his thighs, but his presence screamed readiness.
Every muscle tensed, every glance calculated.
Ahead, the academy emerged like a shadow rising from the mist, jagged walls clawing at the sky.
Its sheer black stone facade seemed alive, watching.
Towers pierced the clouds like knives, the windows glinting faintly with reflections of the overcast morning.
The gates—monstrous iron and steel—loomed closer with every turn.
Rusted hinges groaned like tortured metal, announcing our approach as if the academy itself were breathing, wary, testing me.
The grounds beyond were hidden behind high walls crowned with razor wire, and I could catch the faint glint of cameras.
I felt my pulse quicken, though I forced my face into calm neutrality.
I had survived far worse than intimidating architecture.
I had survived men who wanted me dead.
