The streets of Prague were a maze of mist and memory.
Midnight rain glistened on the cobblestones as Amira stepped out of the black sedan, her trench coat pulled tight against the cold. The Vltava River rippled beside her, reflecting the gothic spires that clawed at the moonlit sky.
For days, she'd chased ghosts — encrypted emails, untraceable accounts, whispers from the underground — all leading here, to a name that shouldn't exist.
Leonardo DeLuca.
Dead on paper. Buried beneath a collapsed empire.
And yet, somewhere in this city, someone using his signature had just transferred ten million euros to a criminal syndicate known as The Covenant — the same organization Victor Lang had secretly funded for years.
Amira's pulse quickened. If Leonardo was alive… what had he become?
Inside a candlelit bar called The Velvet Cage, jazz music curled through the air like smoke. It was a haven for diplomats, thieves, and ghosts with fine taste.
Amira sat alone at the corner table, her eyes scanning the crowd beneath the brim of her hat. Daniel Hale had insisted she stay behind, but she was done being protected. She'd survived fire, lies, and love — now she wanted answers.
A waiter approached. "Whiskey?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Information."
The man froze. Then, after a glance around, he placed a folded napkin before her and whispered, "He comes at dawn. By the bridge."
Before she could ask more, he vanished.
Amira opened the napkin. Written in clean, sharp handwriting were three words that made her breath hitch:
"Do not trust him."
Her heart stopped. That was Leonardo's handwriting.
By dawn, the fog along the Charles Bridge was thick enough to hide secrets — and men who traded in them.
Amira waited near the stone lion statue, her gloved hand wrapped around a small gun tucked beneath her coat. The city was silent except for the church bells in the distance.
Then she saw him.
He walked out of the mist like a phantom — taller, thinner, a faint scar running down his cheek. He wore black, his coat long, his expression unreadable.
Her heart clenched.
"Leonardo?"
He stopped a few feet away, eyes shadowed. "You shouldn't have come here."
Tears stung her eyes. "You're alive."
He didn't move closer. "Alive, yes. But not the man you knew."
Amira's voice trembled. "You left me with a video and a promise. You said the world deserved the truth. So why are you working for them?"
Leonardo's jaw tightened. "Because the only way to destroy The Covenant… is from within."
She stepped closer, desperate. "You expect me to believe that?"
His voice hardened. "You think I wanted this? I lost everything — Marcus, Elise, my name. They rebuilt me, Amira. And I let them, because I needed to see how deep this rot goes."
Her gaze searched his face, but the warmth she once knew was buried beneath cold resolve. "Then why didn't you tell me?"
"Because if they knew you were alive," he said quietly, "they'd come for you next."
Amira's heart twisted. "They already did."
For the first time, his eyes softened. "And you survived. Like always."
She took a shaky breath. "Then let's finish this together. Like we started."
But he shook his head. "It's too late for that."
Before she could respond, a shadow moved behind her. She spun — a man in a gray mask lunged from the fog, blade flashing. Amira ducked, firing once. The attacker fell, clutching his throat.
Leonardo grabbed her wrist. "We have to move!"
They ran through the empty alleys of Old Town, gunfire echoing behind them. Leonardo led her into an abandoned cathedral where stained-glass windows cast fractured light across cracked pews.
Amira turned on him. "You led them to me!"
"No," he snapped. "They were following you."
"Then who the hell are you working for, Leonardo? Because this isn't the man I buried!"
His chest rose and fell. "I'm working for the only cause left worth bleeding for. You want justice? So do I. But this—" He gestured around them, furious. "—this is war. And wars aren't clean."
Amira's hand trembled as she raised the gun. "Then tell me something real. Anything."
Leonardo stepped closer, his voice breaking. "You were real."
Her breath caught. His nearness, his scent, the familiar pull that once set her soul on fire — it all came crashing back. But so did the lies.
"I don't know what to believe anymore," she whispered.
"Then believe this," he said. "Victor Lang wasn't the end. The Covenant runs deeper. They want what's on the drive — the list of every name tied to Lang's network. They'll burn the world to get it."
She frowned. "But the drive was leaked. The files are everywhere."
"Not all of them," he said quietly. "You only saw the surface. The rest… I encrypted it myself. Only I can unlock it."
Amira's stomach twisted. "So that's why they want you alive."
He nodded. "And why I can't be seen with you."
Tears glimmered in her eyes. "Then why meet me at all?"
His voice broke to a whisper. "Because I needed to remember what I'm fighting for."
The cathedral door creaked — three gunmen stormed in.
Leonardo shoved Amira behind a marble column. "Stay down."
He fired, clean and precise. Two men dropped. The third fled.
Amira crawled toward the altar, spotting a shadow above — another sniper. "Leo!"
The bullet came first.
It grazed Leonardo's shoulder, spinning him back with a cry. Blood darkened his sleeve. Amira fired upward — the sniper fell through the glass ceiling, crashing into the pews below.
She rushed to Leonardo's side. "You're bleeding!"
He grinned through the pain. "You still shoot like an angel."
"Shut up," she hissed, pressing a cloth against his wound. "You're lucky I didn't kill you myself."
His eyes met hers — softer now, fragile. "Amira… when this is over… walk away. Don't wait for me again."
"Don't tell me what to do," she said, voice cracking. "Not after dying twice on me."
Later that night, they found temporary refuge in a safehouse by the river. Leonardo stitched his wound with shaking hands. Amira watched him in silence, torn between fury and relief.
Finally, she spoke. "You said you encrypted the real files. Where are they?"
He glanced at her. "Hidden in the blood pact."
Her brow furrowed. "The what?"
He lifted his shirt sleeve, revealing a faint mark — a small symbol tattooed on his wrist: a serpent biting its own tail. "Every core member of The Covenant has one. Each mark holds biometric data — a key. Mine unlocks the final file."
She swallowed hard. "And you let them brand you?"
His smile was bitter. "I let them believe I belonged."
Amira's hand trembled as she touched the mark. "Then we'll take it from them. All of it."
Leonardo caught her wrist. "If we do this, there's no going back."
"I never planned to," she said. "They took my sister. My peace. My life. Now, they'll know what it feels like to lose everything."
He looked at her for a long moment — then nodded. "Then we do it together."
Their hands clasped, blood mixing from his wound to hers — sealing a silent vow.
The blood pact.
Outside, thunder rolled again, echoing over the river.
In the distance, unseen eyes watched through a scope, the red glow of a laser fixed on Leonardo's chest.
Through the static of a radio, a voice whispered in Czech, "Target located. Orders?"
Another voice — smooth, cold, female — replied, "Wait. Let them think they're winning."