Chapter 62: The reunion that made love sparkles
Lauren held the phone tightly against his ear, his voice lowered as if the shadows around him could betray his secret.
"Hi Mom, I’m suspecting a particular safe. But I can’t figure out the password. What do you think it should be?"
A sharp laugh cracked through the receiver, cold and dismissive.
"Lauren, don’t be stupid," his mother hissed. "When you want to protect something precious on your mobile device, what do you use for privacy?"
He paused, brow furrowed.
The weight of her tone made him think twice before answering. "Something... or someone I love or something or someone that holds memories or a remarkable date"...
"Exactly," she murmured, her voice laced with cunning. "Now apply the same logic here. Who do you think Luca would use?"
Lauren’s throat went dry. His mind raced, unwilling to admit the obvious.
He hesitated, but finally whispered with doubt hanging heavy in his tone, "He... he will definitely use his wife’s name.... Alessia. His love, his obsession... it’s too obvious."
His mother’s silence stretched on the line, thick and dangerous, before she finally spoke again, each word deliberate, almost gleeful.
"Then, my son, you already hold the key to breaking him .... and remember one condition son."
"What condition mom", lauren asked his mother
"It must be a correct password, else you can’t guess again until the real owner access It".. She said to him.
Lauren narrowed his eyes, "I don’t like this caution, now I feel scared", he said to his mother.
"Don’t be scared honey".... His mother said trying to sound manipulative, we need this money son... We deserve everything good, we need the reward of what ever the Atlans are willing to give once we get this mission done "..
"I’m motivated again mom", lauren said with his face hardened.
Just then a guard passing by stop by and asked..
"Who’s in there? "He said as lauren quickly hide in a dark corner of the room....
******
Miles away, at the Morano estate, Fredo, the loyal guardian Luca had left in charge, was jolted awake by a heavy knock at the door.
He muttered curses, tugging on his coat as he walked through the cold halls.
When he opened the door, his hand almost slipped from the knob.
A woman stood there. Her clothes were torn by travel, her skin pale with exhaustion, her eyes glimmering with both hunger and fire.
"Who are you?" Fredo demanded, his tone sharp.
The woman’s lips curved into a faint, tired smile. "I have come to see the mafia boss, Luca... and his wife, Alessia."
Suspicion tightened on Fredo’s face. "And I ask again, who are you?"
Her hands trembled as she reached into her pocket.
She pulled out a small bottle of water, unscrewed the cap, and poured it over her face.
The makeup smeared away, revealing the regal sharpness of her features.
The water dripped, carrying the last veil of disguise away.
She straightened, her voice steady, carrying the weight of another world.
"I am Princess Elowen... from Virenkai."...
******
The forest stretched endlessly, a winding path of whispers, shadows, and faint streams of dying light.
Alessia’s lungs burned as she ran, her heart racing like a wild stallion that had broken loose.
Each step carried with it a desperate prayer, a single word repeated over and over in her soul
-Luca.
And then like fate itself bending time, he appeared.
It was indeed Luca.
Her man, Her torment and her salvation, Her sin and her sanctuary, the one name that made the world collapse into meaning.
He stood ahead of her, tall and proud, his dark hair tousled by the wind, his eyes searching, haunted, yet soft the instant they found her.
The moment her gaze locked on him, the world stilled.
The air thickened, the trees bowed as though in reverence, and the earth trembled beneath the weight of their reunion.
Alessia’s breath hitched.
Her heart screamed.
She didn’t run... she flew, and he flew toward her, like two halves of the same soul crashing back into orbit.
When they collided, the embrace was not just flesh against flesh, but spirit reclaiming spirit.
He crushed her against him, as though she were the last fragment of air he would ever breathe.
His scent wrapped her smoke, pine, and danger softened by something only she could summon out of him.
His hands clutched her hair, his mouth pressed to her temple as though anchoring her to life.
"I promise," he whispered, voice ragged, broken yet unshakably firm. "I promise, Alessia. I will never... never depart from you again. Not while I breathe, not while I fight, You’re mine, Alessia. My fire, My queen, My forever."
Her tears fell hot and unstoppable, carving rivers of joy down her cheeks.
She buried her face in his chest, feeling the steady thunder of his heartbeat, and for the first time in what felt like eternity, she exhaled peace.
"I love you without wax," Luca’s voice trembled with a power that broke her even more. "I love you so much I ache with it. I love you without wax, Alessia.. pure, undiluted, unmasked, No cracks, no pretenses. Just plain truth."
Alessia’s lips curved into a smile even as her tears betrayed her.
She lifted her face, their eyes colliding like storms meeting, and whispered, "You are the air I never knew I was gasping for. You are the war I am willing to fight every day. I love you, Luca Morano. I love you with every shattered and unshattered piece of me."
The kiss that followed was desperate and healing all at once, a kiss that rewrote the pain, silenced the storms, and painted fire across their veins.
The forest could have burned to ash and they would not have noticed.
Ryan had turn to face the other side, to avoid intruding in his boss and his wife private moment, as a sign of respect.
When they finally pulled apart, Luca cupped her face, brushing away her tears with calloused thumbs.
His gaze was both fierce and tender, the paradox that was Luca himself.
"But where are the others?" Alessia asked softly, her voice breaking between relief and worry.
"I’m so happy, Luca, but I’m also... sad. It feels incomplete."
"They’re ahead," Luca answered with a reassuring smile, though his eyes glimmered with something deeper, something he wasn’t ready to tell her. "I found them. Everyone is together. Everyone but you and Ryan were missing. And now... " his lips quirked as he looked into her eyes... "look at us. United."
Alessia’s heart squeezed. That smile, that rare flicker of light on his face, was worth every mile of pain she had crossed.
"Let’s not waste time," Luca said, adjusting his grip on her hand, as though releasing it would mean losing her to the winds of fate again. "We need to reach Virenkai before night falls. The map won’t guide us once the moon devours the path."
She nodded, and together, their hands bound by more than touch, they continued forward. Ryan fell in beside them, his usually steady face marked with exhaustion, though his eyes softened at the sight of Alessia’s joy.
The other men came to join them and they moved quietly, but even their silence held a note of relief.
The forest thinned into wide stretches of barren earth as they pressed forward, guided only by the trembling lines of the map Luca held.
Hours dragged like centuries.
The air grew colder, thicker, whispering with secrets they weren’t meant to hear.
Finally, they halted.
The path ended.
Luca lifted the map, his brow furrowing.
The ink that had once glowed faintly with strange life now looked faded, almost lifeless.
He turned it left, then right, but no more paths, just emptiness.
Ryan exhaled sharply, frustration dripping from his tone. "We are lost, sir. This is a dead end. The map brought us here and... here is nowhere."
The men behind him nodded, murmurs of unease breaking their silence.
But Alessia... her gaze never faltered.
Something pulled at her, an invisible thread tugging her heart.
She stepped forward, ignoring their doubt, ignoring the defeat that threatened to choke the group.
"No," she said suddenly, her voice slicing through their despair. "We are not lost.... Look."
Her trembling hand pointed ahead.
And there it was.
A towering board, massive and ominous, rising out of the earth like a beast announcing itself.
Words were scrawled across it in jagged letters that dripped crimson, as though written in fresh, unending blood...
WELCOME TO VIRENKAI.
The words bled with menace, each letter alive, pulsing, as though the wood itself breathed with the hunger of the land.
And beyond it, far away but unmistakable, rose a palace unlike any she had ever seen.
It’s black spires pierced the clouds, its walls glistened like obsidian soaked in sorrow.
And at its gates, like statues forged of war itself, stood the army of King Virenkai.
Swords raised, Shields glinting. Faces carved with stone-hard resolve, ready to defend and ready to kill.
Alessia’s lips parted in shock, her heart thundering as a chill slid down her spine.
The palace did not welcome... It warned especially against those that didn’t come with peace.
Luca’s face tightened, his eyes narrowing with a deadly gleam.
The land of bloods....
The kingdom of shadows.
Virenkai awaited...