SCARLETT
The truth didn't set me free. It marked me.
My past isn't just a memory reclaimed. It's a crown soaked in blood and magic older than the courts circling me now. Every step I take pulls the attention of creatures who remember what I used to be and fear what I could become again. My power is waking fast and it doesn't ask for permission.
Loving Aleksandr is no longer just dangerous. It's political. Sacred. Forbidden. They want to separate us, to study me, to use me, to decide whether I'm a weapon or a threat.
But the bond between us burns brighter the more they try to cut it. I feel him even when he's not there. His rage. His restraint. The way his darkness answers my light like it has always known my name.
If choosing him means becoming the thing they fear, then so be it. I was never meant to stay hidden.
ALEKSANDR
They sensed her awakening.
The courts are moving. The gods are watching. And for the first time in centuries, I am no longer the most dangerous thing in the room. She is. And they want her controlled or erased before she remembers how powerful she truly is.
Scarlett's power isn't gentle. It's ancient and sovereign, and it answers to no throne. Every time she touches me, the chains inside my soul strain closer to breaking. The fallen angel stirs. The vampire bows. The monster sharpens its teeth.
I have spent centuries mastering myself. I will not spend a single second asking permission to protect what is mine.
If they come for her, they come through me. Through my wings. Through the ruin I've kept buried for the sake of balance.
This time, I won't stop the darkness.
This time, I'll aim it.
This is Book 2 in the House of Crimson Series. Reading Order: House of Thirst, House of Hunger.
