CHAPTER 121: LORENZO’S CURSE

"Who else?" Lorenzo rasped, his voice like broken glass scraping through silence. "Luca Morano."

The words hung between them, thick and heavy as blood.

Daisy stood frozen beside Romeo, eyes wide, hand trembling over her mouth. "You’re saying you place a new curse on luca and Alessia ?"

"No," Lorenzo said bitterly, his lips curling. "He didn’t curse her. The curse came for him. She’s just the collateral."

"What do you mean?" Daisy demanded.

Lorenzo’s head dropped, the faintest tremor in his hands. "Every chain I broke to save you all... every shadow I unleashed to hunt him down... it came back twisted. The new curse will bind them together, and now everything he touches will bears the mark too."

A cold wind swept through the room as if the place itself exhaled.

********

Alessia trapped in Luca’s body felt her knees weaken. The room seemed to tilt, every breath burning like a warm smoke in her throat.

Luca.... Her Luca...

The man she loved and feared and once hated in equal measure.

The one who’d promised to protect her—yet somehow, he was at the center of this monstrous web.

Alessia’s reflection in the window shimmered—Luca’s strong frame, his hard jawline, the storm in his eyes.

But the faint glow beneath the skin, the pulse of the Heart was weakening.

A noise had disrupted her thoughts. It was coming from the window, she went to the window side and checked, they was a small group of protesting crowds, trying to force their way into the morano empire. But the guards were stopping them from gaining entrance.....

She saw luca walk in and suddenly she felt dizzy as she saw him entering into her....

********

Daisy stepped forward. "Then how about Seraphina...

"Is dying," Lorenzo finished. "Because Luca defied the pact. And now... Bianca’s paying the price too." He laughed mischievously...

"You are really evil", Daisy spat at Lorenzo. Romeo took her out into the car as they zoomed off....

******

Rain drummed against the glass, the rhythm steady and cruel.

Daisy had returned to the lab in her apartment and removed all the outfits she wore previously...

"I don’t trust Lorenzo, and I won’t risk him infecting me with any illness. " she murmured to herself.

She change and went to meet Romeo waiting for her in the car.

Romeo’s car pulled up the curved driveway of the Morano estate, headlights slicing through mist. Daisy sat beside him, fingers clenched around a rosary that wasn’t for prayer but for courage.

"She’s here," Romeo murmured. "Alessia... or Luca inside her. Whatever this madness has become."

Daisy exhaled shakily. "We need to tell them before it’s too late."

"Tell them what?" he said quietly. "That the Shadow Masters have cursed Bianca to rot alive? That Seraphina’s soul is unraveling? That Lorenzo might not survive the week?"

Daisy’s throat tightened. "All of it."

**********

The mansion doors creaked open.

Alessia in Luca’s body—stood at the top of the stairs, every inch of him carved in shadow.

His expression was sharp, guarded.

Yet Daisy could sense it—something inside him trembled.

"Daisy," he said slowly. "Romeo."

She stepped forward, drenched from the rain. "We need to talk. It’s Seraphina."

Luca’s—her—eyes flickered. "What about her?"

"She’s sick. Dying. Her veins... they’re black, like threads crawling under her skin. Lorenzo said it’s a curse. A web born from your defiance."

The room fell silent.

Thunder cracked.

Alessia felt her pulse—his pulse—hammering against the Heart embedded in his chest.

For a moment, she felt it move, like a living thing stirring beneath the skin.

"She’s suffering because of me?" she whispered.

Romeo hesitated. "Because of the Heart you carry. Because it’s connected to the book Donato took—and the pact Luca broke."

The mention of Donato’s name made her chest ache. "Where is he now?"

"No one knows," Daisy said. "But something else happened—Bianca."

*******

At the edge of the city, Bianca stood before a mirror, clutching a vial of black water.

Her reflection looked like her mother’s—a woman decades older than she truly was.

Her once-glossy hair had turned brittle, her skin pale and dry like winter bark.

She screamed, smashing the mirror with her hand.

Every shard reflected her horror—each one showing a different version of her: child, lover, liar, traitor. All of them aging, withering faster than time could count.

"This can’t be real." she sobbed.

The whisper came from the walls—low, amused, cruel.

"You broke the vow, Bianca. You betrayed the Shadow Masters. Every three days, your beauty will die... until your heart turns to dust."

She fell to her knees, clutching her chest as invisible fire spread through her veins.

"Luca," she choked. "You will pay for this, all the betrayals was for you, was for me to have you and now I’m loosing in both sides."

*******

Back at the Mansion

Daisy’s voice trembled as she spoke. "Bianca’s aging. Ten years every three days. The Shadow curse won’t stop until she returns to the source—the Heart."

"The Heart?" Alessia whispered, touching her chest. She could feel it pulsing faster now, burning hot under the skin.

Romeo’s gaze hardened. "They’re all connected. Seraphina’s sickness, Bianca’s curse, Lorenzo’s evil plans... even you. The Heart isn’t just power, Alessia—it’s punishment."

"I didn’t ask for this." she cried. The words tore out raw. "I just wanted to save him. I never...."

The chandeliers flickered.

A low hum filled the air, vibrating through the marble floor.

The Heart’s glow spilled through her shirt—crimson, pulsing like molten glass.

"Alessia?" Daisy whispered. "You’re glowing."

She doubled over, clutching her chest as pain exploded through her ribs. The Heart was burning, alive, screaming.

Through the haze, she saw something flicker, shadows crawling up the walls, moving like serpents toward her.

Romeo stepped back, hand on his gun. "What the hell....."

"Don’t" Alessia shouted. "It’s not me, it’s the Heart.... "

Her voice split—Luca’s tone overlapping hers, two voices trapped in one throat.

For a second, her reflection on the glass staircase split in two—Luca’s form and her own face, overlapping like ghosts fighting for dominance.

Daisy’s tears spilled over. "You’re losing control."

Alessia fell to her knees. "He’s... still inside... fighting me."

"Then fight back. " Daisy yelled.

"I can’t" Alessia screamed. "He’s stronger."

*********

Outside, lightning flashed—and the gates of the Morano estate swung open.

A black car rolled in, its tires screeching on the wet stones.

Drom it stepped Bianca, veiled and trembling, but still burning with the twisted grace of defiance. The rain didn’t touch her—it sizzled on her skin, evaporating into mist.

She walked slowly toward the mansion doors.

Each step left behind a trail of withered petals—flowers dying the instant her feet touched them.

The guards who saw her froze. One tried to raise his weapon—but she only smiled, and his rifle turned to rust in his hands.

"I came home," she whispered. "To take what’s mine."

******

Inside, the Heart’s glow flared violently.

Alessia gasped as her vision blurred—flashes of Bianca’s face, the curse, the dark pact binding them all.

"She’s here," Alessia whispered. "I can feel her."

Romeo spun toward the window. "Who?"

"Bianca."

Daisy rushed to the door, only to stop short as the grand hall lights exploded one by one.

A whisper slid through the air—Bianca’s voice, broken and sharp.

"Did you think you could curse me, Luca Morano? Did you think I’d fade quietly, I have loved you for years but you choose Alessia over me, you think I’ll give up like that? I went far to do a lot of imaginaries just to have you, I engage myself with shadows and I break and betray them all, including the old witch làpátàsodá Vàlká...My reward was having a curse... Making me look 10 years older than my age every three days.... I won’t die alone luca.... ?"

The mansion trembled.

Alessia tried to stand—but the Heart was tearing at her, pulsing like it wanted out.

A line of crimson light shot from her chest, snaking across the floor toward the front door.

Bianca stepped into view—hair silvered, skin ghost-pale, eyes like molten gold. Her beauty was both ruined and divine.

"Give it back," she hissed.

Daisy backed away. "She’s not human anymore."

Bianca’s gaze locked on Alessia. "Give me the Heart, or everyone you love dies with me."

The Heart Unleashed

The crimson pulse surged.

Alessia screamed as the Heart burst through her chest in a beam of blinding light.

Shadows erupted from the walls, swirling violently around her.

The mansion shook—the portraits fell, the air thick with static and screams.

"Luca" she gasped. "Stop... please.... "

A deeper voice answered through her—Luca’s voice, echoing like thunder.

"She betrayed me first."

Bianca smiled through her pain. "Then finish what you started."

The floor cracked. The Heart rose, spinning between them like a bleeding sun.

Daisy clutched Romeo’s arm, both shielding their faces from the searing light.

The last thing Alessia saw was Bianca stepping forward, reaching for the Heart with shaking, ancient hands.

Her body—Luca’s body—moved on its own, reaching back.

The two forces collided.

A shockwave of light and shadow exploded, throwing Daisy and Romeo against the wall. The mansion doors shattered outward.

And when the light finally dimmed—

Bianca and Alessia were gone.

Only the echo of their last breath remained, twining in the air like a dying spell.... Indeed lorenzo’s spell has broken....