Chapter 4 – A Boy Named Luca

• Aveline walked out of the courtroom like something unseen was chasing her. Her heels struck the marble floor—sharp, fast, deliberate. But inside, her breath came out in broken waves. Her hand gripped the silver locket at her collar like it was the only thing holding her together.
• Still warm.
• And wet.
• Not her blood. But that didn’t matter—because it was enough to make the world around her fall silent.
• The black car door slammed shut behind her. Leo took the driver’s seat, not saying a word. Aveline didn’t either. Her fingers moved on their own, opening the locket before her mind could stop them. A curl of light brown hair rested inside. And along the edge—a faint smear of fresh red.
• A wound the locket couldn’t contain.
• “Luca.”
• His name left her lips. Not a prayer. Not a sob. Just a name that cut like glass when spoken aloud.
• She sucked in a breath, fighting to steady her pulse. Five years. She’d spent five years building walls to keep that boy hidden. Five years pretending Viero blood—Cassian’s blood—didn’t exist outside their empire. But something had broken through tonight.
• “Leo.”
• “Yeah?”
• “Get the second car. We’re going home. Now.”
• He didn’t ask. He saw the look in her eyes.
• She snapped the locket shut gently, like it might bleed again if closed too hard.
• Their house in Ravenrest’s hidden quarter was still. Too still. Guards had been swapped. Cameras turned off manually. Only three people alive knew who lived behind that second-floor bedroom door.
• Luca.
• The boy born in silence. No school. No social media. No last name he could speak with certainty.
• Every night, he clutched a locket like hers. But his held a single drop of her blood.
• A drop that, somehow, had answered something tonight.
• Aveline ran upstairs. The door was already ajar.
• Luca lay drenched in sweat, limbs trembling. His breathing came fast, shallow.
• “Mom…”
• The word was barely more than breath.
• Aveline dropped to her knees, her hand flying to his forehead.
• Burning. Scorching.
• “Leo!” she yelled. “Call the doctor. Now!”
• Leo stood in the doorway, jaw clenched. “Already did. But he said this doesn’t look medical. He wants us to take Luca to a hospital.”
• A hospital meant exposure. Records. Data. A trail Cassian might follow.
• But Luca groaned again, curling inward, like something inside was trying to claw its way out.
• “Start the car.”
• The Hollow Syndicate had their own hospital, buried five floors underground. Clean. Silent. No questions asked. Thirty minutes later, Luca was isolated behind thick glass. Aveline stood there, hands clenched so tightly her knuckles had turned white. Her face was unreadable, but her body betrayed her. She was terrified.
• Then the door slid open.
• Footsteps. Cologne.
• Cassian Drayke.
• She didn’t have to look. She felt him. She always did.
• He stood there quietly. His gaze found the isolation room instantly.
• Luca twitched. Cassian saw him—and something in his face cracked.
• He didn’t need to ask. Not really.
• “Who is he?”
• Aveline didn’t turn. “Don’t ask what you already know.”
• Cassian’s eyes narrowed, slow and sharp. “I should’ve known. From the start.”
• She turned then. Her eyes were dark with things she’d never said. But she didn’t cry.
• “I had the right to keep him safe. From the same world that nearly killed me.”
• The air thickened between them. Not because the mafia king had just discovered he had a son—but because they both knew what that meant.
• Luca whimpered. The fever surged again. Monitors beeped. Alarms blared.
• Doctors rushed in. One of them glanced back at Aveline, pale.
• “This isn’t… normal. We found something in his blood. A kind of resonance. Like it’s responding to something… ancient.”
• Cassian stepped forward. “Ancient?”
• The doctor hesitated. “His DNA is unstable. Like his body is fusing with—or rejecting—something. Something not human.”
• Cassian’s jaw locked. He’d seen this before. The old Viero blood did strange things when rituals were involved.
• “He’s starting the transition.”
• Aveline froze. That word cut too deep.
• “No,” she whispered. “I sealed it. My blood was bound. It wasn’t supposed to awaken yet.”
• Cassian looked at her. “You really believed spells could stop Viero blood?”
• He said her name. And it hit her harder than anything else had in five years. The last time he spoke to her like that, she’d had a knife pressed to his chest, blood on her hands, and a silent promise to protect the child inside her.
• Luca.
• Time passed. Night blurred.
• Aveline sat in the third-floor waiting room. Eyes blank, locked on the floor. Leo stood nearby, silent. Cassian had disappeared after they sedated Luca. But now he returned—carrying a box. Wood, old, etched with Viero runes.
• “This is his,” Cassian said.
• Aveline narrowed her eyes. “What is it?”
• “The answer you refused to give me.”
• He set it down. She opened it slowly.
• Inside—an old scroll. Language only they could read.
• A blood pact. One designed to strengthen a child between them. It had never been completed. Back then, the massacre came first.
• Two dried blood marks at the end.
• Hers. His.
• “I burned this.”
• “You burned the copy. I kept the original. Luca… is the result of that ritual.”
• Aveline leaned back, stomach twisting. Luca wasn’t just their son. He was a living curse. A secret the world wasn’t ready for.
• “What do we do now?”
• Cassian looked straight at her. “We protect him. Or they’ll try to turn him into a weapon.”
• She stared up at him. And for a moment, she saw the man who once held her when she fell apart. Who cried when he learned she was pregnant. But also the man who shattered her trust.
• “Don’t pretend to understand what I gave up,” she whispered. “I raised him in silence. Let him grow up not knowing his father, just to keep him breathing.”
• Cassian didn’t move.
• “I spent five years not knowing I had something worth staying alive for,” he finally said.
• Leo burst in. “Boss. Luca’s awake. He asked for both of you.”
• They didn’t speak. Just moved.
• Aveline’s chest ached as they stepped into the isolation room.
• Luca looked weak, but calmer. His fever had eased. But his eyes…
• They were glowing. A soft, unnatural blue.
• “Mom… Dad…” he said softly.
• Aveline froze.
• Cassian walked to him. “I’m here, son.”
• Luca smiled faintly. Then raised a hand to his chest.
• “There’s a voice… in the locket.”
• Aveline leaned closer. “What voice?”
• Luca glanced at both of them. “It said I have to choose. Or they’ll come. The ones you called… the Hollow Court.”
• Cassian turned sharply. “You didn’t tell me they’re still hunting you.”
• Aveline clutched her locket tight. Of course they were. The Hollow Court never disappeared. They were shadows. Judges of ancient bloodlines.
• If they learned about Luca, they’d erase him.
• The machines started screeching. Luca’s body tensed. He grabbed both their hands.
• “I can hear them,” he whispered. “The future. My voice said… time is almost gone.”
• Before either of them could speak, the lights blinked out.
• Emergency red bathed the room. The lock slammed shut with a mechanical hiss.
• Luca screamed. His hands moved on their own, drawing glowing patterns in the air.
• Bloodlight. Sigils. Ancient script no one should’ve known.
• Cassian stepped in front of Aveline. She shoved him aside.
• “That’s my son!”
• But Luca’s voice—was no longer his own.
• “Something is waking up inside me…”
• The door burst op
• en behind them.
• A man stepped through the red light. Hooded. Marked. A cursed symbol burned on his chest.
• The seal of the blood wars.
• He raised a hand toward Luca.
• “He’s not yours anymore, Aveline.”