Xavier POV

“The end of an empire doesn’t come with silence, it comes with screams.”

The fire devours everything. From a mile out, the horizon glows an unholy orange, smoke curling into the sky like a living thing.

The closer we get, the thicker the air becomes, ash raining over the windshield, the scent of burning oil and wood fusing into something that smells like ruin.

“Jesus Christ,” Luca mutters beside me, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. “That’s the entire ...