- LUCIANO -
There hasn’t been a single doubt in my mind since I killed that fucker Lawson that I’m going to make sure nothing else happens to Rory. I vowed it to her, and I ant it. I still an it... with every fiber of my being.
Now that this conversation about the strange shared dreams has happened, though, it’s even more obvious that I’m right. Rory is obviously facing so kind of further danger, and that’s why I’m here. Whatever that danger is, I’m going to be the one to shield her from it before she can be affected.
Dex is protecting Raya, and he’s kept her out of harm’s way so far. Now it’s clearly on to protect Rory. If there is actually so kind of supernatural force drawing into this responsibility, I’m totally here for it.
"Why do you think they were witches in the dream you two had, Luciano?" Raya asks with that quiet curiosity of hers. "Or... stregas."
The contrast between Raya and her sister is so startling. Looking at Raya and the brightness and warmth of her almost makes you have to squint like you’re looking at the sun. Nothing can hide from those rays. They are blinding.
Rory is like the night sky. There’s darkness in her that I doubt anyone could understand the depths of—probably not even her. And because I’m a creature who thrives in darkness, she feels like ho. Too much like ho. It’s almost terrifying when I really think about it, because there is always an inherent vulnerability to finding a ho within soone else.
Rory is going to be my weakness. She already is.
My jaw clenches with the thought, and I have to stop myself from reaching for her. It’s too soon. Any actual affection I want to show won’t be reciprocated—not yet. Not when I still have her demons to kill first.
"Luci?" Dex prompts. "What do you know about stregas?"
"Didn’t Nonna Etna ever tell you stories about the Trioria stregas in Italy? Or about Concettina in Sicily, the one who dwelt in a cave?"
Dex shakes his head slowly. "I don’t recall hearing anything about it."
"I an, it’s just local folklore similar to those you would find in the States. But Concettina was said to practice all kinds of dark magic. The legend was that she could tell the future and control the weather. She hexed villagers and would make powerful potions for a price.
According to Nonna, Concettina was the last in a long line of stregas, mostly from Trioria, who were killed in the witch trials. Apparently Concettina survived to have three daughters but abandoned them so that her presence wouldn’t put them in danger.
There were witch hunters always after her, and that made her a threat to her own children. That’s when she went to live in a cave on her own, and that’s apparently when she turned to dark magic."
"There wasn’t anything like that in my dream," Rory says next to .
"Maybe not. But there was a circle of old won, there was chanting, and there was a ritual where dark creatures ca out of you," I shrug. "Doesn’t that sound like witches and magic to you?"
"He has a point," Raya says with a small chuckle.
"Or it was just a weird nightmare," Rory suggests.
"It was more than that. I felt it, too," I insist, and it makes everyone go quiet.
"They were helping you in that dream, Rory, and I was ant to witness it for so reason. It wouldn’t surprise if the two of you are descended from an ancient line of powerful won like that—from so culture. Obviously not Italian," I tell them.
"Raya’s dreams either prophesied Dex coming ho or they brought him around to help save her when she wasn’t even aware she was in trouble. Maybe this is a way that your ancestors help protect you. Ancestors are powerful, you know?"
The two sisters stare at each other while I take a drink and recall again so of the stories Nonna would tell. Ma didn’t like it when she would share those stories with us, mostly because she was worried about Vanessa getting scared.
She didn’t have to worry about that with , though. Pa was already showing the real evil that existed in the world and preparing for it. None of Nonna’s stories could compare to that.
"Why?" Dex asks. "Why did Nonna share these stories with you and not with ? She stayed in our guest house, but I never heard anything about this."
"Well, you were sheltered, Dexy," I say, winking at him. "Plus she also felt that they were relevant to the family business."
I glance around, not finding any outsiders to be listening. We are the only ones in this part of the dining area. But that doesn’t an soone isn’t close enough to overhear.
"What would these stregas and the family business have to do with one another?" Dex frowns.
"According to Nonna, part of the family business for a ti was... hunting them," I say, pushing back in my chair, distancing myself from that unpleasant thought.
Hopefully it was just a story. Hopefully there wasn’t any truth to it. Because there is cri I can stomach. And there is cri I can’t.
La Cosa Nostra was primarily created for protection and security of families from outsiders. Any cri ultimately arising within the organization was always ant to just ensure the power to maintain that ability. Sothing like hunting won or children to use them for... literally anything... is not sothing I’m willing to accept as part of that history.
"Why would the family have hunted them?" Raya asks carefully.
"Hopefully they wouldn’t have," I mutter. "But Nonna said it was for power, of course. Won with the kind of abilities that Concettina was said to have would offer imasurable power."
After a brief period of silence, I consider whether this was unwise to bring up. We’ve derailed from the topic of these dreams quite a bit and ventured into the family’s history and origins, and that sudden awareness starts to bristle uncomfortably under my skin. Digging back into mafia origins is never a smart thing to do—even when it seems innocent.
"Let get this straight," Rory says with a bit of fire that can only make smile. If this is what brings more of that fire back, it’s definitely worth it. "Not that I’m taking any of this seriously, but let’s just say you’re right and Raya and I are descendants of powerful won who were labeled sothing like witches. If your family supposedly hunted these won..."
"Not MY family specifically, but—" I start, but she continues on, ignoring my interruption.
"... wouldn’t that make you a threat? Why would you and Dex be the ones invited into these dreams by our ancestors? Why would you be called for protection?"
"It could be like forced reparation," Raya suggests seriously, which contrasts with her sister’s more amused deanor about this whole thing. "Hypothetically. I could see it. Like atonent for past wrongs."
Dex starts nodding and squints while taking a long drink from his glass. "Well this is not at all how I imagined the dinner conversation going."
I have to chuckle at that.
"Is it possible that Nonna Etna was a strega?" Raya asks slowly, each word delivered like a stone dropped deliberately into water.
It takes ti for each of those words to sink with their aning in tow, but when they do, the question makes uneasy. I feel the weight of it in my stomach.
Maybe this was all a fun thought experint, but Nonna being cast as a strega is not sothing I’m comfortable with. I don’t want to imagine it or consider it. I don’t want anyone else to either.
"I just ask because," she glances at Dex again before looking back my way. "There was sothing about her in one of the dreams Dex and I shared. In this dream, Dex arrives to find in the guest house trying to get sothing that’s out of reach, and he helps with it. In real life, he found a box of letters from Sicily that was hers on that exact shelf. It was almost like we were led to them."
I swallow, sothing about this making my throat constrict. Nonna was murdered. What if the letters are from her stalker?
"What letters? What the fuck did they say?"
My voice cos out much sharper than I an, and I feel it when Rory flinches in my peripheral vision. The change in tone has frightened her, and that’s the last thing I want.
"I’m sorry," I mutter, offering her and Raya as apologetic a look as I can conjure, which makes Rory’s eyebrows pinch together in confusion. "I just..." I ruffle my hair and groan. "This got a little heavy. I wasn’t entirely serious about the strega thing, you know? But with Nonna being murdered all those years ago..."
"The letters are in Italian," Dex says. "We haven’t had them translated yet. A lot has obviously been going on. I forgot about them until now."
"I suppose you didn’t bring them on vacation with you?"
He shakes his head. I guess it will have to stay a mystery until we get back.
A million things are running through my mind. Why would Nonna have kept a box of letters? How is it possible that no one would have stumbled upon them until just recently—especially considering the fact that she was murdered? And why the hell didn’t Dex bring them to or soone else in the family to have them translated right after he found them?
"Maybe we should enjoy what’s left of the day," Rory suggests at my side.
The gentle insistence of this comnt takes by surprise. One, because it’s directed toward . And two, because it sounds so soft and considerate.
Usually, I only receive attitude from Rory. And I absolutely love it, of course. But these latest words I can almost feel like a calming caress against my skin, and in that mont it doesn’t seem far-fetched at all to consider that this woman who reminds of a dark goddess might be descended from witches. Her words may as well be spells with the effect they have on , because I want nothing more than to do whatever it is she says.
When I et her stormy blue eyes, they dart away. She then pretends the comnt was ant for her sister.
"What do you say, Raya? Want to explore so of the rainforest while there’s light left?"
"If you think the two of you are walking out into the dense Costa Rican jungle alone..." I start, and Rory rolls her eyes.
"Fine. You and Dex are welco to co protect us from lizards and monkeys in the forest. Our ancestors would be very proud."
I rake a hand through my hair again and smirk, shooting a look Dex’s way. He was right about this being an entirely unexpected conversation. But it was clearly important. There has been much more going on than I realized, and each detail feels like a piece to this strange puzzle that we have found ourselves in.
Raya and Rory Gray are more mysterious and intriguing than I would have ever thought possible. And obviously more subject to dangerous fucking people finding them than the average person. Kenneth Rider? I saw that guy on the news! Then there was obviously Lawson and the psycho shit he pulled.
When Rory gets up and links arms with her sister, I think about how the most dangerous thing that these two have stumbled upon is us—the Ricca family. Because even if we’re not a threat to them, our enemies will be.
My mood about this poorly-chosen location returns, and I empty my glass before getting up to follow them. There won’t be any sleep when it cos to this woman who has captured my attention. There are too many shadows lurking, waiting to swallow her whole.
Maybe Raya’s light has kept most of those shadows at bay in the sisters’ past, but if Raya requires her own protector now, that ans the threats have only increased. And now that I’m here for Rory, it’s my turn.
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