Chapter 54 The Night Watch
I skipped dinner and avoided the library, choosing instead to plant myself on the cold stone floor of the hallway outside the West Wing. It was the only path to the master suite, and consequently, the only way to catch Dante.
By two in the morning, the fortress had fallen into a heavy, suffocating silence,the kind that hangs over a place waiting for a bomb to drop.
Two guards stood ten feet away, watching me with growing discomfort. They weren't wearing the Viper insignia; they were Dante’s men, but even they had run out of patience.
They had asked me to leave three times, and three times I had refused.
"Signorina, please," the guard on the left sighed, shifting his weight. "The Boss has been in meetings for eighteen hours. He won't want to deal with... this."
"This?" I asked, looking up from my knees. "You mean me?"
"I mean, guests sitting in the hallway in the middle of the night," he muttered. "It looks bad."
"Let it look bad," I replied, pulling my knees tighter to my chest to ward off the chill. "I'm not moving."
The guard exchanged a helpless look with his partner, but they made no move to touch me.
They knew better than to handle the woman Dante had paid for, even if they didn't understand why she was camping on the floor like a stubborn child.
My mind kept drifting back to Jasmine’s room, the sterile white walls, the empty shelves, and the way she had clung to that rabbit like it was the only anchor she had left in the world.
He's going to lose.
Selena's text echoed in my head, a constant, rhythmic warning. He was losing the war outside, and he was losing his family inside, and the terrifying part was that he didn't even seem to know it.
Suddenly, a heavy door slammed open down the hall, followed by the echo of heavy, uneven footsteps on the stone.
I scrambled to my feet just as Dante rounded the corner.
He halted the moment he saw me, blinking as if he wasn't sure if I was a hallucination born of sleep deprivation. He looked absolutely wrecked.
His black button-down was untucked and open at the collar, sleeves rolled up to reveal forearms tense with muscle. His hair was a chaotic mess, suggesting he had been running his hands through it for hours.
But it was his eyes that scared me; they were red-rimmed and hollow, devoid of their usual fire. Tonight, they held only ash.
"Lilith," he rasped, his voice rough with overuse. "What are you doing here?"
"We need to talk," I said, stepping into his path.
Dante let out a long, ragged breath and rubbed the back of his neck, wincing. "Not tonight," he said, moving past me toward his door.
"I have to be up in three hours. Whatever this is, whatever complaint you have about the food or the guards or the weather... save it."
"It's not about the weather," I said, turning to follow him.
"I said not tonight," he snapped, not bothering to look back. "I am trying to keep us alive, Lilith. I don't have time for drama."
He reached for his door handle, his hand trembling slightly, fine tremors that betrayed just how close to empty he was running. "Go to bed," he muttered. "We'll talk tomorrow."
"Is that why you agreed to it?"
Dante paused. His hand was still on the latch, but he didn't push the door open. The silence stretched, thick and heavy.
"Agreed to what?" he asked, his back still to me.
"Is that why you are allowing her to send your daughter away?"
Dante went still. The exhaustion in his posture didn't vanish, but it froze, his entire body locking up. He stood there for a second, then two, silent as the stone walls around us. Then, slowly, he turned around.
The hollow look in his eyes was gone. The ash had caught fire. He looked at me, and for the first time since I arrived at this fortress, I felt the terrifying weight of the man who ran the underworld.
"What?" he said, his voice dangerously quiet.
"Switzerland," I said, though my voice trembled. "Lucrezia said you agreed. She said you agreed to ship Jasmine off to boarding school because she needs 'structure'."
Dante stared at me, his face an unreadable mask of stone. "She told you that?"
"She was in the nursery," I pressed, stepping closer. "She threw away Jasmine’s toys. She said you signed off on it. She said Jasmine leaves after the wedding."
Dante’s hand dropped from the door handle.
"I didn't sign off on anything."
"She said it's done," I insisted.
Dante didn't answer. He looked past me, down the dark hallway where the shadows seemed to be gathering. His jaw tightened until I thought his teeth might shatter. He didn't look tired anymore; he looked like he was about to burn the world down.
"Where is she?" he asked.
"Who?"
"Lucrezia."
"She's in the East Wing," I said. "In her suite."
Dante walked past me. He didn't go into his room. He didn't go to sleep. He started walking back the way he came, toward the East Wing, his strides long and predatory.
"Dante?" I called out.
He didn't stop.
"Go to your room, Lilith," he said over his shoulder, his voice cold and final.
"Dante, wait!"
He turned the corner and disappeared into the darkness.
"Lock the door," his voice drifted back to me.
I stood alone in the hallway, staring at the empty corridor where he had just vanished. I had wanted to wake him up. I had wanted to make him see what was happening.
I think I just did.