Chapter 188: Ancestral Secrets
- 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 meant it. I still mean 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 some 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 me to protect Rory. If there is actually some kind of supernatural force drawing me 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 home. Too much like home. It’s almost terrifying when I really think about it, because there is always an inherent vulnerability to finding a home within someone 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 mean, 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 me.
"Maybe not. But there was a circle of old women, there was chanting, and there was a ritual where dark creatures came 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 meant to witness it for some reason. It wouldn’t surprise me if the two of you are descended from an ancient line of powerful women like that—from some culture. Obviously not Italian," I tell them.
"Raya’s dreams either prophesied Dex coming home 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 some 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 me, though. Pa was already showing me the real evil that existed in the world and preparing me 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 me? 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 mean someone 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 time 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 crime I can stomach. And there is crime I can’t.
La Cosa Nostra was primarily created for protection and security of families from outsiders. Any crime ultimately arising within the organization was always meant to just ensure the power to maintain that ability. Something like hunting women or children to use them for... literally anything... is not something 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. Women with the kind of abilities that Concettina was said to have would offer immeasurable 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 me get this straight," Rory says with a bit of fire that can only make me 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 women who were labeled something like witches. If your family supposedly hunted these women..."
"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 demeanor about this whole thing. "Hypothetically. I could see it. Like atonement 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 time for each of those words to sink with their meaning in tow, but when they do, the question makes me uneasy. I feel the weight of it in my stomach.
Maybe this was all a fun thought experiment, but Nonna being cast as a strega is not something 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 something about her in one of the dreams Dex and I shared. In this dream, Dex arrives to find me in the guest house trying to get something that’s out of reach, and he helps me 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, something 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 comes out much sharper than I mean, 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 me or someone 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 comment takes me by surprise. One, because it’s directed toward me. 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 moment it doesn’t seem far-fetched at all to consider that this woman who reminds me of a dark goddess might be descended from witches. Her words may as well be spells with the effect they have on me, because I want nothing more than to do whatever it is she says.
When I meet her stormy blue eyes, they dart away. She then pretends the comment was meant for her sister.
"What do you say, Raya? Want to explore some 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 welcome to come 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 comes 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 means the threats have only increased. And now that I’m here for Rory, it’s my turn.
