The courtyard burned like the mouth of hell.
Ash swirled in the air, catching the moonlight as if the stars themselves had fallen. Flaming peony petals—the Dowager's favorites—tumbled like bleeding snowflakes, sizzling as they landed on scorched stone.
Sienna's back slammed into Silas's chest, his body absorbing the shock as debris rained around them.
"The chip—"Sienna's voice broke as she clutched her cheek, where her birthmark now blazed white-hot beneath her skin."It's transmitting. Silas, it's—activating everything."
Her pupils dilated. Her limbs locked.She could feel it—Veritas pulsing through her neural network, trying to sync with every dormant strand in the city's bloodstream.
Silas didn't hesitate.
He kissed her.
Not soft. Not slow.
Desperate. Exact. Tactical.
His mouth slanted over hers with surgical precision. His hand curled behind her neck as his teeth bit through her bottom lip, drawing blood.
Their mouths filled with copper and heat.
Her blood—coded with Veritas antibodies.His saliva—still laced with the mutated toxin.
Their kiss wasn't chemistry.It was counterprogramming.
An ancient antidote encrypted in DNA, colliding with the very poison that created them.
For a split second, her birthmark flickered like a dying signal—then went dark.
They broke apart, gasping.Sienna sagged against him, trembling.
Silas exhaled slowly.And when he opened his eyes—
They weren't clouded with sickness.They weren't hazed with pain.
They were clear. Sharp. Alive.
"It worked," he whispered, almost in awe.
Sienna wiped blood from her chin. "You're welcome, husband."
A beat of silence.
Then Silas rose, his arms still around her, and turned toward the blaze consuming Nan Manor.
"Now we burn it all."