The underground vault pulsed with cold silence, broken only by the slow click of Marcus’s shoes against the stone floor.

Elena gripped the dagger in her blood-slick hand, the ornate red gem necklace still clutched in the other.

Marcus’s eyes were fixed on her. Hungry. Calculated. Dangerous.

“Hello, princess.”

He said it like a curse and a seduction all at once.

“Stay back,” Elena warned.

“You found it,” Marcus murmured, ignoring her threat. “The Blood Key. After all these years…”

Elena’s pulse hammered in her throat. “What do you want?”

Marcus took another step closer, hands raised. “To finish what your mother started. What your father died protecting.”

“Don’t you...