Yet a single drunken misstep into the Forbidden Wing was enough for Dominic to kill him without hesitation, igniting a war that left mountains of corpses and seas of blood across three territories.
If those people outside made it in here, another massacre was all but certain.
I hauled myself out of bed and hurried into the courtyard, hoping to warn them away before it was too late. My right hand drifted to my abdomen, cradling the weight of what I was about to lose and did not yet know it.
But the moment I opened the door, a face stared back at me. A face that looked seven-tenths like my own.
Before I could utter a word, a hand cracked across my cheek.
"Where did this wretched little servant come from, wearing my face in the Don's private quarters? What, are you trying to steal his favor from me?"
The slap came out of nowhere, so hard my skull rang like a struck bell.
"A civilian with no connections whatsoever. How did you even get inside the Valente compound?"
"She must have slept her way in with some low-level soldier on gate duty. That would explain the pregnancy."