The drive stretched endlessly through the storm. No one spoke. Weapons were checked, routes reviewed, commands passed in low voices. My people knew the plan. Subdue who we could. Kill who we had to. Viktor was mine. But every few seconds, my thoughts drifted.
Cezar. Please be alive.
When we arrived, rain poured in sheets, washing the world clean. Fitting, considering how much blood would be shed before sunrise. The estate loomed ahead of us, beautiful in the cruelest way, perfect for the massacre about to unfold.
I stepped out of the car and looked up at the dark windows.
Where are you, Cezar?
Dorin came up beside me, weapon in hand. “We’ll find him.”
I hated how easily he read me. “I know.” A lie, maybe. I didn’t care.
We had every piece of this place memorized. We entered through the side entrance, exactly where my informant promised it would be unlocked. My people dispersed throughthe building while Dorin and I pushed deeper inside. The first shot rang out before we made it halfway down the corridor.
Screams followed.
For one sickening second, I was back at the party where my parents lost their lives at the hands of someone who did not deserve to take.
Dorin’s hand touched my elbow. “Adelina.”
I blinked.
Right.
Not then.
Now.
Room by room, we moved through the estate. Some surrendered fast. Some fought and died for Viktor, loyal to a bastard who would have fed them to wolves if it bought him another minute of power. I was about to face the person who ended my world, and then we reached the main hall.
It was beautiful, annoyingly so. There were high ceilings lined with gold trim and covered in velvet drapes. A place dressed for royalty and occupied by a coward. My people filtered in behind me, sealing the exits, guns raised in perfect unison. Viktor stood at the head of the room with Darius and Codrin at his sides. A fucking imposter with nowhere to go.
No Cezar.
The fear gnawed at me, but I didn’t let it show.
Viktor lowered his weapon slowly, forcing his sons to do the same. Darius looked like he wanted to fight anyway. Codrin stared at me with confusion, already turning into something different.
Recognition, perhaps.
“Kneel,” Dorin ordered.
Most of Viktor’s men were already on the ground, guns pressed to their skulls. Darius hesitated before one of my men forced him down beside his father. Codrin lowered himself onhis own, his eyes lingering on me for too long, like he was seeing something he hadn’t before.
The takeover had begun.
Viktor chuckled like we hadn’t already won. “I knew I shouldn’t have sent so many men away.” He tried for amusement, though the strain gave him away in the way his jaw flexed. The way his gaze kept darting toward the armed bodies surrounding him. A man who had spent too long perched on a throne built from the bones of better people was finally realizing it was collapsing. He shifted on his knees.
“All right,” he went on. “You have me here. What exactly do you want? Money? An alliance? You’ve proved yourself worthy of joining my Crimson Roses.”
What the fuck?
He talked to Dorin the entire time, his attention never reaching me—like I wasn’t even in the room. Like Dorin was the one who took apart his empire piece by piece.
“Nycto Reaper,” Dorin said, gesturing me forward.
I stepped into the center of the room. The burning desire to slit his throat right then and there was almost more than I could handle.
