Chapter 78 The Reckoning

The storm outside the Citadel raged like a vengeful god. Lightning clawed at the cliffs with white-hot fingers, thunder cracked the sky in deafening roars, and sheets of rain lashed the mountainside with primal fury. Through the chaos, a fleet of sleek, angular aircraft descended like metal vultures, their hulls black and unmarked—Veronica Blackwood’s private strike force. Inside the Citadel’s ancient stone walls, tension ran thicker than the dust in the air. The old fortress, buried deep within the Alps, had once been a monastery, then a royal refuge, and now, a hidden vault for Blackwood’s darkest legacies. The secrets it held had built empires, ended careers, and destroyed lives.