Viktor’s attention landed on me. His eyes narrowed as he studied me.
“So,” he said slowly. “The Nycto Reaper is you.”
“Yes,” I said. “Disappointing, isn’t it?”
His mouth curled. “You’re going to die here, girl. Who do you think you are, walking into this world like you can take what belongs to me?” He laughed.
I smiled.
That pissed him off more than any answer could have.
“You won’t be the end of me, Viktor,” I said, stepping back and spreading my arms. “You don’t have that kind of power.This”—I gestured around the hall, to my men, to the new hierarchy he wasn’t prepared for—“is real power.”
Movement stirred along the walls. More of my people emerged from hidden positions, one after another, until the room seemed to breathe with them. Then they bowed.
This was fucking power. And Cezar should have been here to see it.
Viktor’s composure wavered. Not much, but enough. His eyes hardened, and his fingers twitched against his thigh like he wanted to lunge for me. He stayed exactly where he belonged.
On his knees.
His voice strained. “Who the fuck are you?”
I lifted my chin.
“Members of the Crimson Rose Syndicate,” I called, letting my voice carry. “I stand before you not as a stranger, but as the blood Viktor tried to bury.” Silence settled.
“My name is Adelina Valean. Daughter of the rightful leaders of the Crimson Roses. The time has come for a reckoning.”
The reaction moved through the room like fire through dry grass. Small gasps. Stiffened shoulders. Faces going pale. Men who had worked for Viktor for years were quiet as the weight of my name swept over them.
I am alive.
“The current leadership has poisoned our great organization from the inside,” I said. “In Viktor’s hunt for power, he abandoned everything the Crimson Roses were built on. Loyalty to each other. Honor. The understanding that we were supposed to stand beside our own, not destroy them.”
Viktor’s face contorted.
“This was my parents’ legacy. Their blood built this empire, and I have carried that weight every day since the night it was stolen from me. I never forgot who I am or what was taken frommy family. And I sure as hell never forgot what the Crimson Roses were meant to be.”
I paced slowly, my eyes moving over the crowd. “I know the sacrifices our elders made, and I know what Viktor destroyed when he twisted this syndicate into something unrecognizable. Stand with me. Not as traitors or rebels, but as the rightful heirs to our identity. Together, we will return the Crimson Roses to what it was always meant to be.”
For a moment, no one breathed.
Then a voice rose somewhere behind the others.
“We are glad you are back.” An older man stood despite the gun near his head. Emotion pulled hard across his face as he looked at me. “You are so much like them. The best of both. We need a leader who commands loyalty, not fear.”
The atmosphere changed after that. The fear that had kept everyone rigid under Viktor’s rule no longer felt as absolute. People who had endured him because survival required it now looked at me with hope.
It should have felt like victory. Maybe it would have, before Cezar. Instead, I felt empty. The throne was finally mine again, yet all I could think about was him.
I turned back to Viktor. “Any final attempt at dignity, or are you going to keep embarrassing yourself?”
He gave me a thin smile. “Smart girl. You infiltrated just enough to get to me. Let’s make a deal.”
“A deal with a corpse means nothing.”
“I’m sure you’re angry about your parents,” he said casually. “It’s in my nature, dear. But I didn’t kill your father.Hedid.”
