Page 64 of Chains of Blood and Darkness

She bowed her head slightly and gave us a slight smile. “Bonjour, Mesdemoiselles. So, you are going to the library this morning?MonsieurAngelo told me to bring you coffee there.”

Elena really was like the grandmother I never had.

“Yes, thank you,” Gianna said. “Could you bring us some breakfast too?”

“Oui, bien sûr. I’m fetching the newspaper, and I’ll bring it all on a tray.”

“Thank you,” I said.

We went our separate ways, and Gianna and I had just reached the library when a high-pierced shriek almost made my bones leap out of my skin.

“Come on.” Gianna jumped up, knocking her chair over. “That was Elena.”

I ran after her, hoping Elena had just seen a mouse or a big hairy spider. We found her at the front door. Angelo had gotten there first and had his arms around her. She was sobbing, clinging to him.

The sound of heavy footsteps echoed through the hallways of Crescent Manor as Angelo’s men converged on us, their faces grim and determined. Among them, I recognized Lorenzo, one of Angelo’s most trusted guards.

“Search the grounds,” Angelo barked, his voice cutting through the chaos like a knife. “Look for any signs of anintruder, anything that might give us a clue as to what happened here.”

The men nodded as they fanned out, moving with practiced efficiency. Lorenzo paused for a moment, his gaze meeting Angelo’s in a silent question.

Angelo gave him a curt nod in reply. Lorenzo’s jaw tightened, and he turned to follow the others, his hand bringing out his gun as he disappeared into the gloom.

Angelo turned his head. “Gianna, keep her back.” His hard voice echoed like thunder.

Keep me back? Why? I dodged around Gianna as she reached out to me. Then my gaze fell upon the figure lying face down at the front door, and my heart stopped.

The woman’s long, black hair, the same shade as Joy’s, spilled across the porch like a river of ink. A pool of blood bloomed out from her head, staining the wood beneath her in a grotesque imitation of a red sunflower, its petals reaching out in a silent cry for help.

The world around me fell away, replaced by a suffocating darkness that threatened to engulf me. Joy, my sister in all but blood, who had been there for me through every trial and triumph, lay motionless on the ground. The sight hit me like a physical blow, knocking the air from my lungs and sending me to my knees.

Anger, grief, and shock swirled within me, building into a raging tempest that consumed every fiber of my being. I threw my head back, a scream tearing from my throat with the force of a thousand anguished souls. The sound echoed through the foyer, shattering the windows and sending shards of glass flyinglike lethal daggers.

Objects leaped from their perches, caught up in the maelstrom of my turmoil. Vases…books…furniture…they all spun through the air, their paths erratic and dangerous, but I barely registered their presence. All I could see was Joy’s lifeless form, her blood staining the ground in a silent accusation.

Angelo had promised to find her, to bring her back from wherever she’d been taken. But he had failed, and now my best friend lay dead on his doorstep.

Distantly, I heard Gianna cry out behind me, her voice laced with fear and confusion. Then strong arms encircled me, pulling me up from the ground and into a solid embrace.

Elena screamed and fell to the ground, covering her head.

“Serenity, stop.” Angelo’s usually commanding voice reached my ears, but it sounded muffled, as if coming from underwater. For once his voice was unable to penetrate the haze of pain and soothe the anguish that consumed me.

He shook me, his grip tightening as he tried to break through the walls of my grief. “Serenity! Listen to me.”

I was beyond listening, beyond reason. All the dark emotions that had bubbled within me for so long finally burst free, erupting out of me in a torrent of uncontrollable power. The very foundations of the manor shook, the walls cracking and groaning under the onslaught of my anguish.

Nothing mattered anymore. Not Angelo’s pleas. Not the destruction I was causing. Not even my own safety. All that mattered was the gaping wound in my heart where Joy had once been, a wound that could never be healed.

I surrendered to the darkness, allowing it to consume me in the hopes it would take away the pain and the grief and the unbearable weight of my loss. In that moment, I wished for nothing more than to join Joy in the oblivion of death, to escape the reality of a world without her in it.

Yet even as I sank into the abyss, I felt Angelo’s presence beside me, his arms holding me tightly, anchoring me to the world of the living. And deep down, beneath all the layers of despair and rage, a tiny spark of hope flickered within me, a reminder that even in the darkest of times, love could still light the way.

Chapter Thirty

Angelo

I knelt in the shattered remains of the foyer of Crescent Manor, my arms still wrapped around Serenity’s trembling body. My eyes swept over the devastation that surrounded me. It was hard to comprehend the sheer magnitude of the damage Serenity had caused in her grief-stricken rage. Clearly, her abilities were far stronger than I had ever imagined.

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