Page 92 of Veil of Smoke

Viviana moves like she was born in the smoke.

She’s crouched low, sight locked. One shot drops the first man by the chapel doors. A second drops behind him before he even hits the ground. Precision. No wasted motion.

I don’t call out. She doesn’t need direction.

She knows what she’s doing.

Marco steps through the haze like a man arriving late to his own funeral. He’s wearing a black suit, ash on the cuffs, a pistol in his hand—but it dangles loose, not raised. His eyes lock on mine. Calm. Detached. That smug half-grin I used to think meant experience. Now it just reads like rot.

“Caldera has no room for ghosts,” he says, voice low enough to cut through the echo of retreating gunshots.

He’s talking to me.

And he doesn’t look at Viviana.

He doesn’t see her.

And that’s his first mistake.

She steps forward.

Gun drawn. Barrel steady.

Marco chuckles. Doesn’t even raise his weapon. “She won’t do it,” he says. “She’s not you.”

Viviana’s voice cuts the smoke in two. “No,” she says. “I’m worse.”

She pulls the trigger.

The first bullet takes him in the heart. He staggers, blinking like it surprised him, like maybe for a second he thought this was still a game he controlled. His knees buckle, and he drops, landing hard on the steps with a thud.

But she doesn’t stop.

She walks forward—measured, unstoppable—and fires again. This one, straight between the eyes. No hesitation.

Marco's body twitches once. Then stills.

That’s it.

That’s all he gets.

The yard goes quiet. Real quiet. Not the kind that creeps in, but the kind that drops like a curtain.

Viviana turns back to me.

Her face isn’t blank. It isn’t cold.

It’s clear.

And that’s what scares me most.

She kneels beside me, slides an arm behind my back, her other hand cupping my face as my vision flickers at the edges. Blood loss crawls fast. She doesn’t panic.

“We’re not done,” she says. Her voice is calm, not comfort. It’s command. “Not until every last one of them feels what I felt.”

I stare at her.

I’ve seen rage before. Seen revenge. This isn’t either.

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