Chapter Forty Seven

The weight of everything hung heavy between Diluc and Furina as they sped away from the hospital. The night was thick with tension, but there was something else too—an unspoken vulnerability that lingered between them. They had escaped danger, but it felt like a temporary reprieve, like the eye of the storm.

Furina stared out the window of the SUV, her heart still racing from the chaos of the hospital. Celeste’s reach was longer than they had anticipated, and the thought of how close they had come to something far worse left a chill running down her spine. But at the same time, there was something reassuring in the steady presence beside her. Diluc sat rigid, his eyes focused straight ahead, his jaw clenched in that way she had come to recognize—when he was fighting to stay in control. It was a look he wore often, but tonight, she could sense the cracks in his armor.

The driver pulled up to a luxury hotel on the edge of the city, a secluded place far fr