CHAPTER 119: THE DARK MYSTERIES AWAKENING

The first sound Alessia heard was not birds or the wind but a whisper.

Soft, lovely and familiar.

It echoed faintly in her head, curling through her thoughts like smoke.

You are the lock... but every lock needs a key.

Her eyes fluttered open. The Morano mansion’s ceiling glimmered above her, its ornate gold vines bathed in the pale light of dawn.

The world felt hazy—both distant and painfully sharp. She turned, her breath hitching when she saw Luca sleeping beside her.

His arm rested protectively across her waist, his breathing steady, his features softened by exhaustion.

Luca had left the tourist city with Alessia leaving Enzo’s request unanswered.

For a moment, peace threatened to lull her back into denial. But then came the pulse—a faint tremor beneath her skin, like a heartbeat that didn’t belong to her.

The cursed heartbeat.

She sat up slowly, the silk sheets whispering against her skin. A thin red line glowed faintly along her wrist, pulsing in rhythm with that alien thrum. She covered it quickly when Luca stirred.

"Alessia?" His voice was rough, thick with fatigue. "You’re awake."

She nodded, forcing a small smile. "You should rest, Luca."

But Luca Morano was not a man who rested. He pushed himself up, cupping her face in both hands as his eyes searched hers. "You collapsed on the bed after we got back, you were burning up. I thought I.... "

His voice cracked. "I thought I lost you."

"You didn’t." She held his hand against her cheek. "You saved me."

Before he could speak, a knock echoed from the door.

Luca’s hand dropped to the pistol on the bedside table instinctively. "Enter," he said.

The door opened, and Enzo stepped inside.

He looked... different. His once-crisp demeanor had withered. His eyes were bloodshot, his suit rumpled, and there was a strange, almost spiritual calm around him—like a sinner who’d accepted his fate.

"Sir Luca," he said quietly, bowing his head. "I know my presence is unwelcome, but time is not our ally."

Luca’s jaw tightened. "You’re lucky I haven’t shot you yet."

Alessia placed a hand on his arm. "Please let him speak."

Enzo’s gaze flicked toward her, and a tremor of guilt shadowed his eyes. "The Morano Estate is compromised. Someone or something—found its way through the gate that opened in the chapel. I thought it was sealed, but..." He hesitated. "It followed you home, Lady Alessia."

The air in the room grew heavier.

Luca’s expression hardened. "Explain."

Enzo’s hands trembled slightly. "There’s a surge beneath the estate. The crypt’s lowest vault—where your father stored the original relics—has begun to hum again. Whatever was inside her..." He glanced at Alessia. "It’s waking."

Alessia’s breath hitched. That pulsing beneath her skin intensified, almost in response to his words. "It’s not inside me," she whispered, half to herself. "It’s part of me."

Luca stepped closer, gripping her shoulders. "Don’t say that, We’ll fix it. Whatever it takes."

But deep down, Alessia knew the truth. There was no fixing what she had become.

********

Daisy stood in the soft silver light of the terrace, her heart still trembling from what had almost been the happiest moment of her life.

The ring box felt impossibly light in her hand—too fragile to hold the weight of everything unsaid.

Romeo’s footsteps had vanished into the dark, swallowed by the wind.

The waves crashed below the balcony like distant thunder.

Her phone buzzed—a single encrypted message flashing across the screen.

"CODE RED: MORANO ESTATE COMPROMISED. DO NOT ENGAGE. REPEAT—DO NOT ENGAGE."

Her blood ran cold. That was Romeo’s emergency cipher.

"No..." she whispered. "No, no, no."

Daisy grabbed her gun and jacket in one motion. She knew where he’d gone. She also knew what "code red" truly meant—someone had breached the ancient wards surrounding the Morano estate. It wasn’t just a criminal attack. It was something older, darker.

Something Seraphina had once whispered about in her delirium:

The Heart of the Buried City beats again.

As Daisy rushed toward her car, she caught her reflection in the mirror—eyes fierce, trembling but resolute. "Hold on, Romeo," she murmured. "You don’t get to vanish after proposing."

She started the engine.

*********

Back in the Morano Mansion

Luca followed Enzo down to the crypt beneath the mansion.

The air grew colder with each step. The stone walls were slick with moisture, and the deeper they descended, the more the faint, rhythmic humming grew—like the heartbeat of something massive and buried.

Torches flickered to life automatically along the passage. Shadows danced wildly on the walls.

At the end of the corridor lay the sealed vault—a black marble door etched with sigils older than any Morano alive.

Alessia’s skin prickled. The glow beneath her wrist flared brighter, resonating with the vault’s hum.

"She’s attuned to it," Enzo said quietly. "It’s responding to her."

Luca drew his gun, every instinct screaming to shoot something—anything. "You said it followed her home. What is it?"

"The Heart of the City," Enzo murmured. "A relic buried beneath this mansion centuries ago. It feeds on lineage—bloodlines, specifically the Moranos. That’s why the curse always returns. Alessia didn’t destroy it in the chapel. She awakened it."

Alessia’s head throbbed. Images flashed in her mind—crimson light, Donato jordan’s corpse rising, Lorenzo’s scream, the bloody heart in her hand. She pressed her palm against the cold vault door. The humming stopped instantly.

The silence that followed was unbearable.

Then...

thud.

A single heartbeat echoed from the other side of the vault. Then another, louder and closer.

Luca stepped in front of her. "Get back."

But the marble cracked like glass beneath her touch, splintering outward in a spiderweb pattern. With a sound like thunder, the vault exploded open, sending shards of stone across the room.

Inside was a black chamber.

And in the center... a heart.

Not symbolic—a literal, massive, pulsing heart of flesh and obsidian, suspended in midair by invisible tendrils of energy. Each beat sent a wave of hot wind through the chamber.

Alessia fell to her knees, clutching her head as the same rhythm pounded in her skull. "It’s calling me," she gasped. "It’s mine."

Luca caught her before she hit the floor. "No, Alessia.. Fight it..."

But her eyes snapped open—no longer brown, but glowing crimson.

The voice that came from her lips was not entirely her own. "The lock has been found. Now the gate must open."

Enzo stumbled backward. "She’s merging.... "

"Shut up!" Luca roared, tightening his hold. "Alessia, look at me, You’re not a gate, you’re my wife... A human"

For a moment, the glow flickered. Her trembling hand reached for his cheek, a single tear sliding down her face. "Luca... run."

The heart pulsed violently.

*********

Simultaneously — Daisy and Romeo

Daisy’s car screeched to a stop at the edge of the Morano estate.

The iron gates were open.

Smoke drifted from the mansion’s lower wing, and she could see faint flashes of red light through the windows.

Her instincts screamed trap, but her heart didn’t care. Romeo was in there.

She sprinted through the courtyard, gun raised, eyes scanning every shadow.

At the grand staircase, she found him.

Romeo stood at the center of the foyer, his expression grim, his phone still in hand. He looked up when he heard her. "Daisy.... "

"Don’t you Daisy me.." she snapped, breathless. "You ran out on me in the middle of a proposal, and now the sky’s bleeding! What the hell is happening?"

He pocketed the phone, stepping toward her. "The Heart woke up. Alessia’s the key. And Luca—he’s about to lose her."

A low rumble shook the walls. The chandelier above them swayed dangerously.

Romeo grabbed Daisy’s arm, pulling her close. "Listen to me. If that heart opens completely, the city will burn. We have to stop it—no matter what."

Daisy nodded, gripping his hand tight. "Then let’s end this. Together."

*********

In the Vault

The air inside the chamber had turned molten.

Luca tried to pull Alessia away from the pulsating relic, but her body had become weightless, suspended by an invisible force.

Her hair whipped around her face, her skin glowing with shifting patterns of light and shadow.

"Alessia!" he shouted, reaching for her.

Her voice came in fragments—half hers, half something else.

"Luca... I’m sorry... It’s too strong."

The black tendrils of energy reached toward him. Enzo fired at them, but the bullets dissolved midair.

The force that had once cursed the Morano line was taking form again—this time through Alessia.

The heart opened like a flower of blood and darkness.

A wave of crimson energy blasted outward, throwing Luca and Enzo against the wall.

From the center of that energy, Alessia hovered, her body now glowing with the same crimson-black hue as the heart.

The voice that filled the room was hers—and not hers.

"The gate is open."

The torches blew out. Everything went dark.

And when the light returned, Luca was alone in the chamber.

The heart was gone.

The vault was sealed again—smooth and whole, as if it had never broken.

But Alessia was nowhere to be found.

Her pendant—the one he had given her few days ago lay cracked in the center of the room.

He fell to his knees, gripping it with shaking hands. "My woman... My Alessia..."

A faint echo answered from the walls—her voice, distant and distorted.

"Luca... I’m inside."

*********

Far above, on the mansion’s highest balcony, Daisy and Romeo watched the faint, spiraling crimson storm forming over the estate.

Romeo’s face drained of color. "She didn’t close the gate..."

Daisy turned toward him, eyes wide. "Then who did?"

A shadow moved behind them—smooth, confident, and unmistakably alive.

A familiar voice drawled from the dark:

"You’re late, Loyal Thorn."

They both spun around.

It was Lorenzo di Marco......