Breaking the Ties of Love

In a world of decay, Dante Vane is the only thing that stays white. Serafina Reed spent five years serving as the shield for a base that didn't deserve her. When the breach came, her commander voted to feed her to the infected just to buy himself a chance at survival. Left to die in the freezing Dead Zone, with nothing but a rusted blade and a broken heart, Serafina prepared for the end. She didn't expect the man who arrived to save her. Dante Vane, the Supreme Commander of Aethelgard, is a monster of surgical precision. He incinerates cities with a flick of his wrist and possesses a pathological hatred for the rot of this world. He moves through mountains of gore without staining his pristine white coat—a lethal ghost in a world of filth. When he finds Serafina in the snow, he doesn’t just save her. He claims her. He takes her back to his sterile sanctuary, obsessed with cleansing the grime of the world from her skin. He feeds her, protects her, and burns down anyone who dares to cross his perimeter. He wants to keep her as a prized exhibit in his own private hell. But Dante made a fatal mistake: he thought he was saving a victim. He didn’t realize that Serafina isn’t a trophy—she’s a blade. And she’s finally ready to see if she can cut through his steel heart. “You’re trembling, Tesoro,” he whispers, pressing a cold, gloved hand to her cheek. “Don’t worry. I’ve burned the rest of the world just so you could remain pure.” “Then why,” she asks, her voice sharp as the steel she hides under her pillow, “does your touch feel more dangerous than the end of the world?”