Even as the words left my lips, my heart sank, weighted by a sea of doubt swirling inside me. It was as if my resolve was a fragile ship battered by waves of uncertainty.
With every step, the world’s weight pressed heavier on my shoulders. The ground beneath me was a graveyard of ash and ruin, the smoldering remnants of a monster’s domain. The cold gnawed at my bones, though I wasn’t sure if it was the chill of the air or the relentless grip of dread tightening its hold on me. I pushed forward, Olivia’s name echoing like a desperate mantra in my mind. She and our baby had to be out there. Somewhere. Waiting for me. But with every passing moment, the fear inside me grew, gnawing at the fragile hope that kept me moving.My dear Olivia… my little Luna… where are you?
CHAPTER TWENTY
OLIVIA
Iawoke to the soft nuzzling of horses and the sharp cries of baby Luna in my arms. The mingled scents of hay and ash filled my nostrils, the acrid sting an unrelenting reminder of the chaos we had barely escaped. My eyes fluttered open, struggling to adjust to the dim moonlight that filtered through the barn’s wooden slats.
How did I get here?
Fragments of memory clawed at the edges of my consciousness—my mother and Mathias, their faces twisted into cruel masks, the very embodiment of betrayal. The pain of that moment resurfaced, sharp and suffocating.
“Shh, it’s okay, little one,” I murmured to Luna as her wails pierced the oppressive silence. Her tiny body trembled against mine, hungry and terrified. We were all coated in ash, grimy remnants of a nightmare that lingered. Nearby, Reyna huddled close, her face etched with exhaustion and despair. Beside her, Rosie clutched a ragged doll to her chest, clinging to the only comfort she could find in this hellish aftermath.
I tried to stitch together the fractured pieces of how we had ended up here in this fragile refuge. A woman... Zara. Her name whispered in my mind like a fleeting shadow. She had pulled us from the flames, her presence elusive, more specter than savior. “This woman... she saved us,” I mumbled, the words tumbling out as if saying them aloud would make it all more real. “But who is she? Why would she help?”
Panic began to swell in my chest, clawing its way up as names surfaced in a desperate litany. “Is Roman alive? Malik?”
Luna’s cries crescendoed, drawing me back to the present. Her needs, simple and urgent, reminded me of my purpose. With trembling hands, I guided her to my breast, offering the only comfort I could. Slowly, her sobs quieted as she latched on, her tiny body relaxing in my arms. I held her close, my heart aching, torn between boundless love and paralyzing fear.
When Luna finally drifted into a peaceful sleep, her breaths soft and steady, I pushed myself upright. My limbs felt like lead, my head heavy with exhaustion and the weight of unanswered questions. But I couldn’t stay still. I needed to move, see, and piece together the full scope of our nightmare.
As I staggered into the yard, the sight before me stole the breath from my lungs. Where a grand home had once stood, only a burnt husk remained. The blackened and skeletal ruins stood eerily against the pale light of dawn, a cruel echo of Costa’s house… and Emily’s. The fire had consumed them all, reducing everything to ashes and memories.
The devastation laid bare before me was a silent, damning testament to the monsters my mother and Mathias indeed were. They had tried to erase us, to wipe our existence from the fabric of this world. But they had failed. In my arms, I held the most precious part of our future. Luna, blissfully unaware of the ruin surrounding us, slept peacefully, her small, warm body anchoring me to a single purpose. I vowed to protect her from the horrors of our reality, no matter the cost.
Driven by a frantic need to find Roman, I searched the rubble of what was once our sanctuary. He had to be alive. I knew he had left before the fire started—but Malik… Malik might have stayed behind to protect me. I had no way of knowing. I clung to the hope that they had escaped. They had to.
Each step sent clouds of ash swirling around me, stinging my eyes and filling my mouth with the bitter taste of despair. My heart clenched at the silence, every hollow corner and lifeless space where hope should have existed.
“Roman?” My voice cracked, barely audible over the sound of my ragged breaths. I stumbled over a charred beam, the remnants of our haven now reduced to obstacles in a graveyard of memories. Once hidden and fortified by thick walls, the dungeon now lay open to the sky, its secrets spilling out like a fallen beast’s entrails.
Descending the cracked stone steps, I braced myself against the cool dampness in the air below. Shadows danced across the broken walls, remnants of the fire’s wrath.
Raul’s lifeless body lay sprawled on the cold stone floor, his end written in the stillness of his form. The sight turned my stomach, but I forced myself to look, to take in every grim detail. There was no sign of Balthazar—he had escaped or been taken. The thought of him out there, free, sent a shiver of dread down my spine.
Anger and panic swelled within me, thick and suffocating like the smoke that still clung to the air.
“Everyone’s dead,” I whispered, my voice trembling with fury and heartbreak. My chest heaved, my heart hammering against my ribs. “I fucking hate my mother! She tried to kill me. She tried to kill my daughter.”
Images of Mathias and my mother slipping away like shadows at dawn flickered in my mind, haunting and unshakable.
“Where’s Osman?” Reyna asked, her voice brittle. “And Malik? Did he need to feed?”
Hope, fragile and tenuous, whispered that they might still be alive. I clung to it like a drowning man grasping for driftwood.
“Roman went to the caves...” I said, my words uncertain but clinging to the possibility. “I don’t know where Malik is, but you could be right. Let’s hope so.”
The weight of loss and the oppressive silence became too much to bear. Turning away from the tomb-like dungeon, I sought the solace of open air. Outside, the sky stretched cruelly clear, a soft expanse of pale gold and lavender, the last traces of dawn giving way to daylight. Their tranquil light mocked the devastation below, an indifferent beauty against the backdrop of ruin.
Reyna stood beside me, her face a mirror of the destruction surrounding us. Rosie’s small hand slipped into mine—a tiny, grounding presence in a world gone mad.
Then, through the haze of destruction, a flash of hope. Two figures emerged from the distance, running from the stables—Roman and Malik, alive. Relief surged through me, a burst of energy that drowned out the weight of despair. They had defied death, survived the inferno, and now sprinted toward us like salvation incarnate.
“Roman!” I shouted, my voice finding strength.
With Reyna and Rosie at my side, I ran toward them, toward the promise of reunion, toward the men who had refused to let destruction be the end of our story. Dust swirled around us as the distance between us closed. My heart thundered in my chest, my steps quickening with every beat.
