Chapter : Blood Between Lines

My fingers trembled as I held the photograph.

The girl’s eyes were too familiar—too piercing. The soft curls, the delicate mouth, even the tilt of her chin… they screamed of something I couldn’t ignore.

She looked like me.

Not just a passing resemblance.

She looked like a version of me that had never been broken. A version untouched by Virello’s fire or Wallace’s knives. Innocent. Whole.

Lucien stepped beside me, eyes narrowing at the photo.

“Who is she?” he asked.

I turned the image over again. The scrawl on the back was unmistakable:

“The final heir must fall.”

The words crawled down my spine like...