What Loyalty Costs

Damien POV Morning came quietly in the Verona estate. Light slipped through the tall windows in thin bands. I woke slowly, aware of the space before I opened my eyes. The bed was too wide, the sheets pressed flat where no one lay beside me anymore, except for Lilith’s strand of hairs and the smell of her that was still faint in the room. I inhaled without thinking, and the memory followed immediately. Her breath against my throat. Her hands, unsteady at first, then how it became certain. The way she had said my name the night before, not Damien, but Marco, like she had pulled the boy out of the man and refused to let him hide. The name settled in my chest longer than it should have. It loosened something I had kept tight for years. I smiled before I caught myself, a brief genuine smile, the kind I did not offer lightly. This was not how my mornings usually began. I sat up and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. My bare feet met the tiled floor, and the cold cut was sharp enoug