Chapter 556 - CHAPTER 555 — The Kiss That Couldn't Heal

The night wind drifted across the private balcony of Regina Royal Estate, carrying the scent of rain-soaked roses from the gardens below and stirring the pale curtains behind Elara Romano as she stood with both hands resting upon the cold stone balustrade. It was a quarter past eight on the twenty-seventh day, and although the estate had settled into an uneasy quiet after the revelations in the Grand Hall, Elara could not persuade her thoughts to follow suit, for Malachor's warning had lodged itself beneath her ribs with the persistence of a wound that refused to close. She had faced ancient kings, watched a crown shatter, and discovered that the blood running through her veins carried a history she could scarcely remember, yet none of those revelations frightened her as deeply as the possibility that loving Alessandro De Luca might eventually place him in the path of something she could neither control nor understand.