Chapter 4 4

Isabella POV

The only sound in the Don's suite was the solemn, metronomic tick of a grandfather clock in the hall. Each tick was a hammer blow against my composure. Sixty minutes.

I worked with a precision born of remembered pain. The fire, the screams, my mother's face in my last moments-it was a litany that sharpened my focus, hardened my hands. I laid out the contents of my pouch: crushed nightshade petals, powdered wolfsbane root, and the dried, silver-leafed herb from the cliffs of Sicily, the only known counter-agent to the poison.

I mixed them with a splash of grappa from the Don's decanter, creating a dark, fragrant paste. This was the alchemist's gambit. Julian's poison was meant to attack the heart, slowly crystallizing the muscle until it ceased to beat. The antidote was a violent purge, a fire to fight fire.

I lit the incense, the same blend Julian had used to mask the poison's scent. But he didn't know its true purpose. It wasn't a mask; it was a key, designed to open the body's pathways to receive the antidote.

With steady fingers, I pried open Damien's lips and forced the paste down his throat. Then came the needles. I pressed them into the points my grandmother's journal described: one at the base of his throat, two over his heart, one in the soft flesh of each wrist.

Then, there was nothing left to do but wait.

The clock ticked. Ten minutes. Twenty. Forty-five.

Doubt, cold and sharp, began to pierce my resolve. What if I was wrong? What if my memory of the journal was flawed? The thought of Julian's triumphant face, of my own body being dragged to the cellar, sent a tremor through me. I gripped the bedpost, my knuckles white, and forced the image of my mother's ashes into my mind. I would not fail.

With three minutes left on the clock, he groaned.

It was a low, wretched sound, the first sign of life he had shown in weeks. His body began to tremble, then convulse, a violent, rattling shudder that shook the entire bed. I rushed to his side, holding him down as a guttural cough tore from his lungs.

He wretched, spewing a torrent of black, viscous blood onto the white silk sheets. It smelled of incense and bitter almonds-the smell of the poison being expelled. I grabbed a towel, clearing his airway, my heart hammering against my ribs.

His eyelids fluttered. Then, they snapped open.

I found myself staring into the eyes of a wolf. They were the color of a stormy sea, deep, dark, and utterly feral. There was no confusion in them, no weakness. Only pain, and a cold, predatory intelligence that sent a shiver of pure fear down my spine. He was awake. He was here.

The knock on the door came at the precise stroke of the hour.

I took a deep breath, straightened my dress, and walked to the door. I pulled it open.

The scene in the antechamber was a frozen tableau of hope and dread. Elena was on her knees, praying. Clara was weeping into her hands. And Julian... Julian looked at me with an expression of pure, triumphant hatred, already tasting his victory.

"Well?" he demanded, a cruel smirk playing on his lips. "Has your little trick failed, witch?"

I said nothing. I simply stepped aside.

From the doorway, they could all see him. Damien Moretti, their Don, was propped up against the pillows, the black blood still staining his lips. He was pale, gaunt, and looked like a man who had clawed his way out of his own grave. But he was awake. And his eyes, burning with a cold, terrifying light, were fixed directly on his adoptive son.

The smirk on Julian's face dissolved, replaced by a mask of sheer, abject terror.

The king was back on his throne. And judgment had come.