Chapter 1
ADELINA
Another night, another plan gone to shit.
Two targets. In, eliminate, out. Easy. That’s what Dorin said before everything fell apart.
I’d packed light, bringing only black roses—one for each body I planned to leave behind. It was supposed to be simple. Two bullets, a couple of roses, and no witnesses. Nothing more, nothing less.
Then I saw three kids huddled near a rusted truck, hands clamped over their ears, their eyes wide with terror.
And just like that, nothing else mattered.
“Shit,” Dorin muttered beside me, already reading my face.
“Get the kids,” I ordered.
Men scattered like rats. Bullets tore through the trees, kicking dirt into the air. The initial quiet hit unraveled into a massacre in seconds.
Dorin moved like he always did, without panic—fast and brutal. He scooped up two kids while a few of our people closed in around him. Vasile moved up next to me and grabbed the smallest just as she froze.
I cursed, ducking low as bullets flew overhead.
I fired back, clearing a path toward our planned exit. The little girl clung to Vasile’s shoulder, her face buried against him.
“Keep moving!” I shouted.
They nodded, then vanished through the smoke. I turned and moved on to the targets.
The air smelled like a slaughterhouse. Blood splattered my sleeve as I swung my dagger into a man who’d been too slow to understand he was already dead. These men weren’t innocents. None of them ever are.
A rose on the chest, a corpse at my feet—how I preferred things to go. The black rose wasn’t for grief or remembrance. It was a mark. My mark. A promise that no one would forget who put them in the ground.
I didn’t have enough roses for what this night became. No time to pin a flower to every bastard who deserved one when we were too busy trying not to join them.
Once the targets were eliminated, I ran for the extraction point with my lungs burning. Through the haze ahead, Dorin came into view, the kids clinging to him while his team covered their retreat.
“Dorin!” I yelled, closing the distance. He looked back, sweat and blood streaked across his face, eyes wild from the adrenaline.
When I reached them, he moved the children into a runner’s arms so he could reload. Both were shaking. I did a quick scan through the wreckage.
No Vasile. No third kid.
“Where’s Vasile?” I grabbed Dorin’s arm hard enough to make him flinch.
He glanced over the field, panting. “He was right behind me.”
I forced my mind to focus past the noise.
A burst of movement flashed at the far edge of the clearing—someone running, carrying a small figure against their chest.
No. No, you fucking don’t. What happened to Vasile?
He fled like he thought he had a chance. He didn’t. Not when I was fueled by pure, feral purpose. Muscles tight, breath sharp, heart a fucking war drum.
Keeping low, I sprinted through the trees. Can’t let him see me coming. The intent was to ambush, snatch the girl, and bolt. My people knew the orders. Save the innocent by all means necessary.
“Your mask!” Dorin’s voice buckled through the gunfire.
