CHAPTER 113: THE WHISPER BENEATH THE SKIN

Aria

Aria woke before dawn.

For a moment she did not know what had stirred her. The room was silent, the curtains swaying gently with the early morning draft, the lights dim. Luca lay beside her, his arm draped around her waist, his breath steady against the back of her neck. He looked peaceful, but Aria knew better. His sleep the past few nights had been shallow and fractured, his mind always alert, always listening for danger.

She gently shifted, careful not to wake him.

Her body felt heavy with fatigue, but her mind was restless, buzzing with threads of dreams she could not fully remember. Images. Sounds. A woman’s voice. A child crying. A symbol carved into stone.

The same symbol Luca had hidden in his pocket last night. She did not need to see it to know. She had felt it in her bones when he returned to the bedroom. Something old had brushed against them. Something that had no right to exist in their world.

Aria slipped out of bed and pressed her hand instinctively to her swollen belly. The baby shifted, a soft nudge beneath her palm.

"I know," she whispered. "I feel it too."

She moved to the window, pushing aside the curtain. The estate was dark except for a few scattered security lights. Guards paced along the fence line, rifles strapped to their backs. Two dogs patrolled the gardens. A drone hovered near the west corner.

Everything looked controlled.

But Aria felt something else.

A pressure beneath the surface of the air, like the world had inhaled and forgotten to exhale.

There was a faint knock at the door. Quiet. Polite.

Aria froze. Her heartbeat quickened.

She stepped closer. "Who is it."

"It is me," Rosetta’s voice whispered.

Aria exhaled.

She opened the door.

Rosetta slipped inside quickly, closing the door behind her. Her expression was pale, her eyes sharp with concern.

"You should not be awake this early," Rosetta murmured.

Aria managed a small smile. "I could say the same to you."

Rosetta hesitated before saying, "Luca asked for a private meeting downstairs. He sent Nico to fetch the others, but he told me to check on you."

Aria stiffened. "Something happened."

Rosetta nodded. "Yes. But I am not sure what. Luca is not talking."

Aria’s hand drifted protectively toward her stomach. "I want to go downstairs."

Rosetta stepped in front of her. "No. Not yet."

"If something is happening, I need to know."

"And if something is happening," Rosetta countered, "Luca will want you nowhere near it."

Aria felt frustration prick her spine. "Rosetta. I cannot stay in this room while the world shifts below my feet. I need to know what we are facing."

Rosetta hesitated longer this time.

Then she stepped aside.

"Stay behind me," she said softly. "And if Luca sees you... I am pretending I tried to stop you."

Aria managed a shaky smile. "Deal."

Luca

Downstairs, the command room was alive with activity. Screens flickered, mapping every inch of the property. Nico stood beside the central table, barking orders into a radio. Two tech specialists worked frantically at the surveillance station. The tension was so thick it felt like smoke.

Luca entered with the quietness of a predator. The room snapped instantly to attention.

"Report," Luca said.

One of the specialists turned, sweat on his brow. "We reanalyzed the footage from last night. The blackout was not a system failure. Something interfered with the feed."

"What kind of interference," Luca pressed.

"Not electrical," the man said. "Not vandalism. It is... hard to explain."

"Try."

The man swallowed. "It is like the footage was overwritten. But only for fifteen seconds. And only on the south gate camera."

Nico crossed his arms. "Someone cloaked themselves."

"No," Luca said sharply. "No one cloaks themselves on my property."

The specialist hunched. "Sir. Whatever did this... was not using conventional technology."

Luca’s jaw clenched. "And the charm."

Nico slid the evidence bag across the table.

Luca picked it up again.

He had stared at the carved markings for hours, hoping logic would reveal something. But logic had limits. This object looked like it belonged in a museum, not at the edge of his estate.

A symbol etched into ancient metal. A spiral pattern that almost seemed alive when touched.

And last night, when the lights flickered as he pocketed it, Aria had stirred in her sleep.

He had felt a cold wind brush the back of his neck.

Now Nico stepped closer. "There is something else."

"What."

Nico placed a photograph on the table.

A still frame pulled from earlier surveillance footage.

Luca’s blood went cold.

The charm was not originally on the gate.

It was placed there by a hand.

A human hand.

But the frame captured only the movement of the hand.

The rest of the body was missing.

Not invisible.

Not cloaked.

Removed.

Erased.

As if the person had no presence at all.

Luca’s heartbeat slowed.

"What am I looking at," he asked quietly.

Nico shook his head. "I do not know. But whatever it is... it is not normal."

Luca stared at the blurred hand in the photograph. A pulse of cold recognition slid down his spine.

Whoever left the object knew Aria’s lineage.

Knew the Morrelli past.

Knew the unborn child.

Someone had stepped out of obscurity just long enough to leave a warning.

Or a claim.

Luca straightened. "We will find him."

Nico opened his mouth, but Luca cut him off.

"I do not care if this man walks through shadows. I do not care if he knows tricks we have never seen. I do not care if he was erased from the footage by something unnatural."

His voice dropped, ice cold.

"He stepped on my land.

He approached my wife.

He threatened my child."

Luca’s eyes hardened into something lethal.

"He dies."

The room fell silent.

A faint movement near the doorway caught Nico’s eye.

"Boss," he said quietly.

Luca turned.

Aria stood in the doorway.

For a moment, the room stopped.

Aria

Luca’s expression did not soften.

Not immediately.

He walked toward her slowly, like a storm moving across land. His eyes scanned her, making sure she was unharmed, noting her breathing, the tension in her shoulders, the way she held her belly.

"Aria," he said quietly. "You should be resting."

"I cannot rest while you prepare for something without me," she replied.

"This is not your fight."

"Yes," she said, her voice calm but firm. "It is."

He reached her and took her hand. His grip was warm, grounding, but she could feel the tension beneath it.

She looked up at him. "What did they find."

He studied her for a long moment, then gently guided her into the room. He nodded to the others, who stepped back, giving them space.

Luca held the evidence bag up.

"This," he said, "was left on the south gate."

Aria’s eyes fixed on the charm. The room dimmed around her. Something in her chest tightened. Her pulse hammered in her ears.

"What is it," she whispered.

Luca hesitated, then spoke with controlled calm. "I do not know. But it was placed there intentionally. And whoever placed it... does not appear on our cameras."

Aria’s skin prickled.

She looked at the symbol. The spiral. The ancient lines.

And she felt something.

A faint resonance beneath her skin, like the echo of a forgotten song.

Her hand drifted to her belly.

"Luca," she whispered. "I have seen this."

He frowned. "Where."

"In my dreams."

Silence sharpened the edges of the room. Nico stepped backward. The guards looked away. Even the surveillance hum seemed to pause.

Luca stepped closer. "Tell me what you mean."

Aria swallowed, fighting the tremor in her voice. "For the last week... I have had dreams. A woman’s voice calling. A child crying. A symbol carved in stone."

She pointed at the charm.

"That symbol."

Luca stared at her with a mix of shock and protective fury.

"Why did you not tell me," he said quietly.

"I thought they were nightmares," she whispered. "I did not think they meant anything."

Luca took her face in both hands, his voice low and intense. "Everything you feel means something."

Aria trembled. "I am afraid."

Luca pressed his forehead to hers. "You have every right to be. But nothing touches you. Nothing touches her."

Aria closed her eyes, breathing him in. His scent. His warmth. His strength.

She opened her eyes again.

"Whoever this person is," she whispered, "they are not just watching. They are trying to reach us."

Luca’s grip tightened.

"Let them," he said.

Nico stepped closer. "Boss. There is more."

Luca looked at him sharply. "Say it."

"We analyzed the charm again. There are fingerprints."

"Run them."

"We did." Nico swallowed. "They do not match anyone in Italy. Or Europe. Or the United States. No criminal databases. No government ones."

Aria’s heart skipped.

Nico continued, voice low.

"And there is something else. Something impossible."

Luca’s voice dropped. "What."

"The fingerprints do not belong to one person." Nico lifted another scan. "There are several patterns. All from the same hand. As if the same person has lived several lives. Or has changed prints."

Aria felt the room tilt slightly.

Luca stepped closer to Nico. "You think this is supernatural."

"I think it is unnatural," Nico replied. "Something outside normal parameters."

Luca turned to Aria.

"I will find who did this," he said. "And I will end him."

Aria held his gaze.

"No," she whispered. "We will end them."

Luca’s eyes softened.

Not because he agreed.

But because she already had the courage of someone who had chosen her place at his side.

He brushed her cheek with his thumb. "You stay with Rosetta. You do not go anywhere alone."

Aria nodded slowly.

But inside her, something else began to rise.

A memory.

A voice.

A symbol carved into her dreams.

Something old.

Something watching.

Something waiting.

The teeth in the dark had started to show.

And they were coming for the Morrelli bloodline.