Roman’s figure sharpened through the haze until, finally, his arms were around me, pulling me close in a desperate embrace.
“Oh, my darling, you’re safe,” he breathed, his voice trembling with relief.
His kisses fell like soft raindrops on my forehead; he found baby Luna’s peaceful face. Each word that followed wrapped around me like a lifeline in the aftermath of chaos.
“Both of you... I’ve been so worried,” he murmured between kisses, his voice a low rumble, thick with emotion.
“My mother started the fire,” I said, the words bitter and jagged on my tongue. “She locked me in my room. A woman saved me—someone I don’t even know.”
Roman’s hold tightened, a growl rising from deep within him. Fury radiated off him, burning as hot as the smoldering ruins around us.
Nearby, Malik cradled Rosie, pressing his lips to her small face and head in tender, protective gestures. Though both bore the scars of our ordeal, their reunion was a quiet, poignant reminder of what we had managed to save amidst so much loss.
Reyna stood apart, her silhouette lonely against the backdrop of destruction. Her voice was barely a whisper but carried the crushing weight of dread. “Have you seen Osman?”
Roman’s grip on me loosened as he turned to face her, his features shadowed with sorrow.
“I’m sorry, Reyna,” he said, his voice low and heavy with finality. “Osman didn’t make it. I tried to save him… but it was impossible.”
Reyna’s knees buckled beneath her, her face contorting in a silent scream as she collapsed. Malik darted toward her, his arms outstretched just in time to catch her crumbling form. The sound that finally escaped her was raw and guttural, the keening wail of a soul torn apart, reverberating through the quiet devastation around us.
The ash beneath my feet seemed to whisper of betrayal and loss with every step as I moved closer to her. Reyna’s silhouette was a broken shadow against the night, her pain an almost tangible weight pressing against the air.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” I murmured, resting a hand gently on her trembling shoulder. Her grief enveloped her like a suffocating shroud, an aura of despair that seemed to drain the very life from the air around us.
“It’s all my fault,” Reyna choked between heart-wrenching sobs. “I should never have brought him here.”
“Reyna, there’s nothing you could’ve done differently.” The words felt hollow even as I said them. “I’m sorry you have lost him.”
Her sorrow-filled eyes met mine briefly before looking away, the weight of her grief palpable.
“He was my best friend,” she whispered. Malik hovered a few steps back, his towering presence a silent well of strength. His fierce and unwavering gaze rested on Reyna with a protectiveness that mirrored the resolve hardening in Roman’s expression.
As if our collective grief summoned a shared purpose, Roman and Malik stepped closer, their postures radiating determination. Roman’s sharp and unyielding voice cut through the stillness like a blade.
“We will protect you, Reyna,” he vowed, his words brimming with fury. “And we will make Alina and Mathias pay for what they’ve done.”
Reyna shook her head, wiping away the remnants of her tears. A flicker of her old defiance returned, sparking in her eyes. “I should never have left Anatolia. I left my home to find the moon dagger… and look where it’s brought me.”
Malik’s low and measured voice broke through the tension. “And where are Alina, Mathias, and Balthazar?” he muttered darkly. “I can’t find them anywhere.”
“Fare thee well, and may we never meet again,” Reyna spat with a sudden venom that surprised us all. Her tears were gone, replaced by a blazing fire—not one of destruction but of unrelenting determination. “But they cannot hide from us forever.”
I held Luna closer, steadying my breath as the weight of the conversation pressed against my chest.
“Mathias admitted to me,” I began, my voice quivering with a mix of fear and resolve, “that he killed Armand and Isabelle in a fire. He destroyed Balthazar’s family. He’s a pure evil monster. Both he and my mother… they’ve dropped the facade. They’ve shown me their true faces.”
Roman clenched his jaw with barely contained rage.
“Olivia,” Malik said. “We must leave this place and travel to Anatolia. It’s unsafe here, especially since you now possess both blades. We need to move, and we need to move now.”
I nodded, absorbing the weight of his words, though sorrow still tethered me to the ruins of what we had lost. Reyna sat on the scorched earth, her spirit as fractured as the charred remains that surrounded us. I knelt beside her, rocking Luna gently in my arms.
“We must bury Osman,” Reyna murmured, her tears falling unchecked, a river of grief that seemed unending.
“Reyna,” Roman interjected softly, kneeling beside her, “he was crushed and burned in the fire. I don’t want you to see him like that. We can honor him without…”
“Without what?” Reyna’s voice cracked, eyes searching Roman’s face for answers none of us could provide. “Without seeing the remains?” she whispered, her pain raw and unfiltered.
