Page 151 of The Silence Lies

“Me too,” he says softly. “We’ve all lost her, but we have each other to get through this, right?”

I nod, smiling to myself when I realize the one thing I should have said all along. “Il mío sole. That’s what you are to me.”

“Sunshine, huh?” he raises a brow.

I raise my hand to the heavens opened up above us. “Sunshine in this storm.”

He smiles at that, like my words have brought the faintest trace of happiness to our morbid reality.

The space between us is suspended in silence, a moment where it is just us, looking into each other's eyes. I see all the lightness start to return in his eyes, I feel it as I close the distance. And then I crash my lips to his, letting the rain wash away the newly formed tears from my face.

He cups my face, pulling me in harder like he can’t get enough of this simple exchange. Our tongues tangle, our passion burning through the kiss, our feelings pouring into it. The rain pummels louder around us, and even though our clothes are soaked through, there’s nowhere else I would rather be than right here. I know I can’t get through this pain without Levi, and I think he feels the same.

Eventually, Levi pulls away, the fire in his eyes burning bright as he strokes my cheek with his thumbs. He is staring so adoringly into my eyes that somehow, all my fear and doubts are swept away in that moment, the intensity of our kiss reminding me of what we have. Of what I’m so fucking afraid to lose.

“Come on, pretty boy,” he says, pushing up to his feet. He holds a hand out to me and I look up at him suspiciously.

“Pretty boy?”

Levi rolls his eyes, heaving me up so that I’m chest to chest with him. “On the days when the skies are gray, you’re what I want to look at. When the skies are blue, I’ll still be looking at you.”

My chest constricts with something unfamiliar. It’s not a pain, but a lightness, a featherweight brush of something liberating.

“Now come on, we should dry off.”

I comply, following him back inside where the warmth of the house makes me shiver from the temperature change. We rid ourselves of our clothes, wrapping up in blankets before wrapping ourselves in each other’s arms on the couch in the den.

The place still smells of Sera, and Levi must know that this is where I feel most at ease. It’s the only thing reminding me that she is still with us. The only thing keeping me somewhat sane in this chaos.

I shift in Levi’s arms, not even perturbed that the couch can barely fit us horizontally, and rest my head on his chest. I still feel the weight of Sera’s absence. I don’t think that will stop until she’s here with us, but until that day comes, I know I still have Levi, and he has me.

With the hope of my thoughts, I let the week’s worth of unforgiving exhaustion take me under, pulling me into the dark where guilt and fear can’t get to me.

Giovanni

The pain comes in waves, my consciousness warring with the dark. I wish I could stay there in the abyss, where the pain can’t reach me, but like clockwork, I’m woken up by the cold assault of water splashing over my face.

Luciano repeats the ritual, cutting and slicing, stabbing and slashing. Every time I hear Sera’s screams for Luciano to relent, I lose a little more of myself. This is her pain. While mine is physical, she has to battle it mentally and emotionally, and I personally know which one is worse.

Cuts and bruises heal, but the emotional torment never goes away. When all of this is over, she’ll have to live with this, while I’ll be somewhere the crows can pick at, never to find my family again.

Sera’s sobs have become nothing more than croaks in this frigid room when Luciano reappears. Her pain is evident, but he won’t relent until she abdicates her position. That’s what he wants out of this. He knows he can’t kill her because there would have to be a body to find and answers to questions from the Elders.

What’s worse is how the sick fucker gets off on this shit, so killing her doesn’t seem to be an option anyway. At least I know she can get out of this. If only she would give Luciano what he wants.

I don’t know how long we’ve been down here. There are no windows or clocks to tell the time. The only constant is the torture and relief when Luciano sends his soldiers to patch me up, only for it to start all over again once I’m safely confined in my own mind.

But it’s not safe at all. It’s where my demons find me.

I wish I could stop this. I wish I had the power to protect Sera, but I don’t. I never had the power because it was taken from me the day Gabriella was stolen. And now, I don’t think I’ll ever get her back.

The silence is deafening in this room, the sad tension thick and suffocating. It’s dark and damp in here, the scent of blood and piss leaking from every crack and crevice in this place. What’s worse than that is the fact that Sera hasn’t spoken to me directly since the torture started, she’s only begged Luciano to stop.

“Sera?” I force out. My throat is dry from the pain, my voice cracked and broken like my body. “Sera, I need to ask you something.”

“I don’t owe you shit.” Her voice is void of all emotion. I know she hurts for me, but that’s as far as her forgiveness goes. There’s no coming back from what I did to her. There’s no coming back from any of it for me. I know how this ends and I’m at peace with that.

“Please,” I cough. “You’re going to get out of this. And when you do, I need you to find her.”

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