The night bled into dawn again.
But this time, the air in Velletto Tower carried the weight of war.
Adrian's wound had been cleaned, his shoulder wrapped in silk-white gauze.
He sat in the dim light of his study — coat draped over the chair, blood still staining his cuff. The scent of antiseptic mixed with rain.
And across from him stood Elara, no longer the trembling woman who'd signed a contract.
Her eyes were sharp.
Cold. Awake.
"The Council," she said. "Who are they really?"
Adrian looked up, meeting her gaze with quiet calculation.
"The ones who built you," he said. "And the ones who wanted you erased."
Her hands clenched into fists.
"You knew all this time."
"I knew they would come for you the moment you remembered who you are."
"So what now?"
"Now," he said, standing, "we make them believe the Viper is back."
They drove through the mist-covered outskirts of the city, black car slicing through dawn like a bullet through silence.
Every building, every turn, whispered of the underworld she'd once ruled.
"You think walking into the Council's world is smart?" she asked.
"No," Adrian said. "I think it's inevitable."
He opened a small case between them — inside were two black gloves, a sleek dagger, and a folded mask.
Her breath caught.
"That's mine."
"It always was."
He handed it to her — the mask that once hid the face of death in the underground.
As her fingers touched the leather, a wave of memory struck her like lightning.
⟡ FLASH ⟡
She stood in a cathedral of shadows.
Men kneeling. A voice echoing through the dark.
"Viper, our weapon of silence."
"For every soul you take, a debt is paid."
And then—Adrian's voice, bleeding through that memory.
"You don't belong to them anymore."
Elara snapped back to the present, gasping. Adrian was watching her closely.
"You saw it, didn't you?" he asked.
She nodded weakly.
"They used me."
"They created you," Adrian corrected. "But they never understood you. You were more than their weapon — you were their threat."
"And you?" she asked quietly. "What were you to them?"
A pause.
"Their heir."
Elara's eyes widened.
"You… were part of the Council?"
"Until I betrayed them. For you."
Her pulse thundered in her ears.
"You said you tried to save me. You meant—"
"I burned the Council's codebook. Their ledgers. Their blood contracts. Everything that tied you to them."
He stepped closer, lowering his voice.
"And that's why they sent the order for your death — because I chose you over them."
The car stopped. They'd arrived at an abandoned mansion — black gates rusted, ivy strangling its walls.
Adrian looked at her, expression unreadable.
"This is where it began."
Elara put on the mask.
The Viper looked back at him through her reflection in the glass.
"And this is where it ends," she said.
He smiled — faint, dangerous.
"No, Elara. This is where it starts again."
The gates creaked open as dawn bled red over the horizon.
And in the distance, unseen eyes watched them through the fog.
"The Viper has returned," a voice whispered into a comm.
"Activate the hunt."