𝐈𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟. ✞ ✞ ✞ He wanted to use her. She was the mastermind who planned for that all along. ✞ ✞ ✞ Power. Power built them. Power is what will destroy them. From sworn enemies to reluctant allies, there is nothing 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐚 𝐈𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐯 wouldn't do, nobody she wouldn't use to reach what her mind has been fixated on for years. Revenge. She's inhumane. Emotionless. Messed up in the head-a diagnosed ASPD mind turned into something precise, something dangerous. A machine. The underworld doesn't call her by name. They call her the flame behind the ghost don. The living requiem. Nyx. And when something like her sets her sights on a target? She takes. Uses. Burns everything necessary to get what she wants. And 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐳𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐨 became exactly that. There's nothing the Camorra king hates more than her-the ghost, the flame, the thorn in his side he's been chasing for years. The assassin behind the Russian don he wants nothing more than to take down. The one thing standing between him and full control over New York City. Blaze is forced to do the one thing he would rather die than do: Ally with the enemy. It was supposed to be simple. Temporary. Strategic. But temptation has always been a dangerous game, and Vera has never been the kind to walk away from a game. Especially one she knows she'll win. Because she's always ten steps ahead. And this time, she chose to play.

She was supposed to be the easiest thing he'd ever ruined. They usually were. After all, it was the only language he'd ever been taught. Make them afraid. Make them listen. Force them to break. But she didn't break the way he expected. He was never supposed to want a girl like her. Yet she possessed a devastating habit of making the impossible actually matter. And he had spent his whole life slaughtering anything that did. ༻❁༺ Liora Solís was always too soft for her own good, a girl obsessed with a word she didn't even get to experience herself: Freedom. She believed it was her birthright to fight for others, spending her whole life doing so, acting as a shield for the defenseless while secretly choking inside her own hyper-sheltered life. She just never realized she'd end up begging for her own. To anyone looking in from the outside, she was just your average, everyday college student who followed all the rules and never stepped out of line-a naive girl who honestly thought monsters only lived in fairytales until she stumbled straight into the path of a real one. A single, devastating misstep. Talk about a twisted tale. The very girl who dreamed of liberating others is suddenly stripped of her choices, trapped in a forced marriage with the Angel of Death. Valen Azrael Duarte. Los Angeles's inescapable monster. A tattooed, lawless god with dark, captivating eyes, so full of secrets. Secrets that should have stayed buried. His. Hers. Her father's. He feels nothing, but wants everything, especially revenge served cold. Until he wants her even more. A tale of obsession so twisted and consuming that it turns into fate, and betrayal becomes the one thing that'll tear their lives apart because Azrael isn't a myth. Azrael is destiny. And Liora Solís is the one name he was never meant to spare.

"We're both taken, Smurf. But your boyfriend could never have you screaming like I did. Call it unethical. I call it self-awareness." ✰✰✰ After years in Russia, Nicholas returns to America ready to take the throne waiting for him. Power is easy. Violence is easier. Forgetting her was never an option. She was the woman who never noticed him-emotionally bound to someone else while he burned in the background, unseen and unwanted. Distance didn't kill the obsession. Time turned it into something dangerous. Now married and fully aware of what wanting her could cost him, Nicholas makes the choice anyway. Even if it costs him his name, his marriage, his empire. Even if she becomes the one thing he can't afford... And refuses to release. ✰✰✰ Araceli has rebuilt herself into something unbreakable. A survivor turned trauma therapist, she dedicates her life to helping others reclaim what was taken from them. Her work is her anchor. Her boundaries are firm. Her past is buried. Until her next client arrives. A man she hasn't seen in years. A man she once ignored. A man whose presence drags memories to the surface she thought were long gone. She never expected to see him again. Now she can't stop seeing him. It's forbidden. Unethical. Unprofessional. He's married. Sexually reckless. And there is something deeply wrong about why a man like him would willingly sit in a space meant for survivors. Araceli knows what he represents. What crossing that line would make her. She asks questions anyway. Because whatever once drew her to him is still there-quiet, insistent, dangerous. And as the truth begins to surface, only one question remains: How far will he go to have her? 𝐀 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞.