"The Hidden Blood"

The corridor was far too silent. Shadows stretched along the walls of Castle Valtieri, as if listening to the secrets whispered within. Selene, back after days at Dante's house, still felt her skin burn with the stares, the gestures, and the memories she struggled to bury.

She walked lightly, as though something within her pushed her forward. And then she heard voices.

— "She was never my daughter…"

Cassios Valtieri's voice sliced through the silence like a cold blade, making Selene freeze behind a stone wall.

— "A soldier's blood runs through her veins. I had to… eliminate him. Him and the woman who stained my name with disgrace."

He continued, with bitterness and disgust. "But she inherited the power that served me so well. Selene was born to serve the legacy of darkness, even if she is the result of forbidden love and shame."

Selene's world collapsed. A buzzing invaded her ears; her hands shook violently. She bit her lip until it bled, swallowing a scream that burned in her throat.

Without thinking, she ran. She rushed up the stairs that led to the oldest part of the castle, where locked doors and abandoned rooms lay forgotten by time.

Pushing open a door covered in dust, she entered the room that had always been forbidden to her — the refuge that once belonged to her mother, Helena.

The wood creaked beneath her steps as Selene explored the room filled with white sheets, a covered mirror, paintings leaning against the wall, and an old trunk in the corner. Inside it lay a dark leather book, its golden edges corroded by time. A diary.

She sat on the floor and, with trembling hands, began to read, as if wanting to deny the truth written in every line:

> "Cassios was never the man who should have been my husband. My heart always belonged to that humble soldier, the only one who, with sincerity and courage, dared to love me against all convention. I loved him even before Cassios forced me into marriage. I was already pregnant when I was taken, in a forbidden love that shone under the starlight. When Cassios found out, he hated the child forming in my womb, decreeing that she would be born marked by darkness, unworthy of the Valtieri name. He hated me for loving another. He hated me for giving birth to a daughter who would never truly be part of his lineage."

The words ignited her senses. Selene pressed her lips together, eyes wide with realization. She understood — what wasn't written outright was carved between the lines, pulsing in her blood.

— "He killed her…"

She whispered, her voice cracking. "He killed my mother. Killed the soldier who fathered me, the man who truly loved me, just to shape me according to his own design."

The world spun chaotically around her. The castle seemed to collapse upon her. Her chest heaved, her hands trembled. A scream tore from her throat, cracking the mirror, extinguishing the candles, and letting the wind violently invade the room.

Selene clutched the diary to her chest; tears mixed with the blood on her palm as she screamed again — this time with fury, pain, and despair:

— "I am the daughter of a forbidden love… and I was raised in the shadow of death!"

The shadows, in response to her agony, dragged along the walls as if they too shared her torment. The diary, tossed to the floor and open, displayed its yellowed pages vibrating with her rage, while the castle fell silent at the cry of a truth buried for eighteen years.

She staggered through the room, hitting the walls, knocking over books, objects, and paintings. Blood dripped from her wounded palm, tracing a silent lament on the floor.

— "Lies… everything was a lie…"

She whispered, her eyes fixed on the still-burning fireplace, as if wishing to set it ablaze and erase the past.

But she couldn't forget. Nor allow herself to.

When she collapsed to her knees, hair sprawled across the floor, her body trembling, bloodied and dusty, the door burst open violently.

— "Selene."

Dante's voice cut through the air like a blade. "What have you done?"

He stepped inside, scanning the chaos of the room, the fury and vulnerability etched in her eyes, and for the first time, he hesitated.

Selene lifted her face slowly, wild, tearful eyes meeting his.

— "You knew…?"

She whispered, voice shattered. "You knew I was a living lie? That I was raised by a murderer? That the man who calls me daughter killed my mother and the true man, that honorable soldier, simply because he couldn't bear the thought that their love existed?"

Dante remained silent, but the shadow crossing his gaze said that somehow, he had suspected — or maybe even known.

Selene laughed, a bitter, pain-filled sound.

— "Of course you all knew… everyone did. Except me."

She stood, her eyes fixed on Dante. "I'm the fruit of sin, of forbidden love, and I was shaped into a weapon by the murderer of those I loved most."

— "Selene…"

Dante took a step forward. "You are not a weapon. You are—"

— "Shut up!"

She screamed, and the candles went out once more. "You have no right to comfort me. Not you. Not anyone. Everything was stolen from me. Even my blood is now tainted."

Dante approached, calmer than she expected, his amber eyes locked on her, dark and intense.

— "I won't ask forgiveness for what was done to you. Because there is no forgiveness for such injustice."

He bent down to carefully pick up the diary and held it out to her. "But you must know: even if your origin is marked by pain and lies, what you've become… that belongs to you. Only you. Not Cassios, not Helena, not that soldier. You are Selene. And you are powerful."

She hesitated for a moment, staring at the diary without taking it.

— "You don't understand. You never do. My entire life was built on lies, and now you want me to accept this truth as if none of it matters? Just breathe and move on?"

— "No."

Dante stepped closer, his voice low and tense. "I want you to destroy everything, if you must. But I want you to live. Because if you disappear, if you lose yourself in this pain… I…"

He stopped, the words stuck in his throat.

— "You… what?"

Selene whispered, her heart pounding erratically.

— "I lose my mind."

He murmured, pressing his forehead to hers. "Because everything in me belongs to you, even when I deny it or when you hate me."

Selene closed her eyes, trying to fight off the weakness that overcame her. His touch was both poison and balm.

— "You only say that because you see me as something rare. Powerful. Useful. Don't come to me with empty promises, Dante."

— "I'm not good with promises."

He growled softly. "But I know how to make you remember that you're alive. And now… you'll stay here. You'll rise from this curse and destroy anyone who dares oppose you — but you'll do it by my side."

She stepped back, confused and furious, as her emotions waged war within her.

— "I don't know who I am anymore…"

— "I do."

Dante answered firmly. "You are Selene Valtieri. Daughter of darkness, heir to a forbidden bloodline and the courage of that soldier. The woman who will break every cycle."

Exhausted, she fell into an armchair, covering her face with her hands as weariness finally overtook her body. Dante knelt beside her, running his hand gently through her hair with a tenderness she didn't expect.

— "Don't touch me…"

She whispered.

Even so, he continued slowly, respecting her time, her silence, her pain.

— "I won't leave this place. I won't leave you."

For a moment, Selene allowed it — accepted the touch and the fleeting comfort. Yet her eyes remained full of sorrow, and her soul, far too scarred.

That night, wrapped in the darkness of a cruel truth, she understood something essential: something inside her had changed. And inside him, too.

And that change… would still carry the weight of much blood.