Raven
The storm didn't let up.
Lightning forked across the sky as Raven shoved Luna's go-bag into the back seat of Isabella's armored SUV. Her hands trembled, not from the cold—but from the pressure of it all closing in.
They were being hunted.
Cesare Marone. A name she once respected. Trusted. Reported to.
Now, he was the hand behind the curtain. The monster chasing her daughter.
Aurelio had barely spoken since donning that cursed ring. But his eyes had changed. Deeper. Glowing in flashes. Like something inside him was watching.
He stood beside the SUV now, soaked in rain, his presence a thundercloud of rage and restraint.
"They'll come for her tonight," he said flatly.
Raven met his gaze. "Then we don't wait. We move."
"No," Isabella said, stepping forward. "We bait them."
Raven froze. "You want to use Luna?"
"No. We use you," Isabella replied. "They expect you to run. But if we split, they'll follow the weaker trail. I'll take Luna and disappear. You and Aurelio draw them out."
Raven hesitated, her instincts screaming to keep her daughter close. But Aurelio stepped in.
"She'll be safe," he said, voice gravel and thunder. "And I swear to you—this ends tonight."
---
Luna
She didn't cry when Isabella pulled away with her in the car.
Didn't speak.
But her little hand gripped the locket around her neck—and she whispered softly under her breath.
A language no one had taught her.
One that made the storm part for the car to pass through.
---
Aurelio
He drove through the rain like a man possessed, Raven beside him, her fingers white-knuckled on the dashboard.
"We're driving toward them," she whispered.
"We're driving into them," he corrected.
Her gaze flicked to him. The markings on his skin had spread to his neck now, faintly glowing under the collar of his shirt.
He was changing.
Or becoming.
"Are you afraid?" she asked.
His jaw flexed. "No. But I'm angry. And I know exactly who to unleash it on."
They didn't make it far.
A convoy cut them off at the old bridge outside the city.
Vehicles. Armed men. And in the middle of it—him.
Cesare Marone.
Aurelio stepped out first, hands at his sides, but power buzzing in the air around him.
Marone smiled. "You came."
Aurelio's voice was calm. "You shouldn't have touched what's mine."
"You still don't understand, do you?" Cesare said. "Luna is a vessel. A door. When her blood awakens completely, she can either save this world… or open it."
"And you want to control her," Raven spat.
"I want to complete her," Marone corrected.
Aurelio's eyes flashed. "She already is. And you just made your last mistake."
With a motion of his hand, the air exploded into fire.