BLOOD AND SHADOWS: THE MAIDEN OF THE ASHEN CREST

Deep beneath the ruined manor lay Dante’s true foundation: an underground bunker fortified with reinforced steel and lined with an arsenal fit for a small army.

Dante threw open the heavy vault door. Racks of automatic rifles, tactical vests, breaching charges, and satellite communication arrays gleamed under harsh fluorescent strip lights. He tore off his ruined overcoat, revealing the massive dragon and cross tattoos running down his spine, and pulled on a reinforced Kevlar vest.

Elena set her trench knives on the steel table, picking up an MPX submachine gun and inspecting the firing pin with practiced ease. "The Old Fortress sits on the cliffs of San Giorgio. Julian has at least fifty men on the perimeter. Concrete bunkers left over from the Second World War."

"I built those bunkers," Dante replied coldly, strapping an assault shotgun across his back and sliding dual semi-automatic pistols into shoulder holsters. "My family used them to smuggle weapons during the Balkan war. There are drainage tunnels running beneath the foundation from the sea caves."

"The water is freezing, and the surge will crush anyone who doesn't know the rhythm," Elena said.

"I know the rhythm," Grace's small voice interrupted.

Both adults stopped. Grace stood in front of an open locker, her small hands feeling the surface of a lightweight tactical chest rig. The grey veil in her eyes was beginning to recede slightly, exposing slivers of sharp green beneath.

"You're staying here," Dante snapped, stepping toward her. "You are not going into that slaughter."

"Father," Grace said, turning her face toward him. "Julian’s men have thermal scopes. Elena's body heat will light up like a torch in the sea caves. But the Nightshade lowers body temperature by five degrees. In the tunnels, the sensors will read me as ambient stone. If I don't deactivate the pressure grids from the inside, you will both drown before you reach the lower docks."