THE ASSASSIN'S GROOM

Alessandro's return, with again a portion of the Serpent's Eye, struck them with the venomous snake itself. That seed planted in the ancient room was bludgeoned into oblivion under the cold, smothering grasp of understanding that the presence of the Serpent had reached deeper than they had been willing to conceive. The betrayal stung more, in the realization that while Marco and Enzo were being murdered, in the darkness lurked a new student of the old magic, patiently waiting. "Alessandro," Luca's voice a snarl, his hand automatically going to his gun. "How?" Alessandro's smile was icy and deprived even of the faintest spark of the false loyalty that he had once possessed. "Useless cousins. Did you believe that Marco and Enzo were the only two people who received an invitation by the Serpent? The blood knows, Luca. The blood informs the listener. And I. I've been a terribly good pupil.". He lifted the aching shard out of the air, its dark power flowing into him in a quivering chill along the curve of his cheek. "This moment, it is a drug. It gives a precision, a clarity your emotional weakness can never give you." "You're mad, Alessandro," Isabella jeered, sword unyielding. "That shard killed Sofia. It will kill you too." Alessandro snorted, a cold, harsh laughter. "Sofia was weak. She let her emotions rule her. I, however, can feel its strength. It makes the will more powerful, it makes people obey you." His gaze locked on Luca. "Think, cousin, what could be ours together. The true inheritance, long reestablished." "Never," Luca spat, his resolve fixed. "We will sever this bond, shatter this madness once and for all." "Cut it?" Alessandro scoffed. "You can't cut what's in your blood, Luca. It's a calling to you, as it is to me. You can feel it, can't you? The pull, the call of power?" Luca fought to clench his fists, battling back the poisonous whispers that somehow seemed to be coming from Alessandro's shard, a dark imprint of the Serpent's power. He sensed an undertone of resonance thrumming within him, old hungers he wasn't even unconsciously repressing. "The compromise will hold," Bianca asserted, obsidian key clutched tightly in fist. "We will honor the wisdom of the ancients." Alessandro's eyes narrowed, his gaze snapping to the key. "The key… you've discovered it. But do you have any clue what it opens? It doesn't just cut the bond, cousins. It demands a sacrifice." Luca's spine prickled with terror. Sacrifice? The journals never said that. "What do you mean?" Isabella flared, suspicion searing. Alessandro's smile twisted. "The Serpent's Eye must be balanced. To destroy the bond completely, a life tied to the Serpent's blood must be sacrificed. A willing vessel to hold the resonant echo." His gaze fell on Luca. "No," Bianca gasped, cheeks pale. "It's the only option, cousin," Alessandro had responded, his voice with a chill determination. "The blood must be cleansed. An order must be restored." Luca's heart had shattered in the presence of the horror that descended upon him. Alessandro's words rang in his mind like Marco's, the zealot, the warped vision of an cleansing demanded. "We cannot let you do this, Alessandro," Luca told him, his voice thick with a fierce protectiveness. "You have no choice, Luca," Alessandro told him, the shard held above his head. "The will of the Serpent shall be done." The old hall was a battlefield once more, the future of their clan at stake. Alessandro, enraged by the shard of the Serpent's Eye, flung waves of dark energy, his blows fueled by fury and fear. Luca, Bianca, and Isabella faced him with desperate courage, watching each other's backs as they attempted to cross to the dais. Dante shielded them with fire, his bullets aimed at Alessandro, driving him back from the shard. Electricity thick in the air, carvings on the dais of the wall vibrating with wicked energy. The whispers grew into a vast sea of old, echoing voices, calling them to violence, blood offering. Bianca, quoting from the diagrams in the journal, started repeating the ancient severing ritual incantations under her breath, her voice a reassuring light in the sea of darkness. She was striding across to the dais, obsidian key held high above her head. Alessandro, with his scheme in mind, attacked Bianca, his eyes burning with intense passion. Luca and Isabella attempted to shield her, withstanding a great deal of the black energy blows, their bodies being the focus of attack. Luca felt the Serpent's power attempting to enter his head, luring him with glimpses of control, making fate against Alessandro. But love for Bianca, loyalty to Isabella and Dante, gave him balance. Bianca proceeded to the dais, the concave receptacle in the rocky ground releasing a gentle, timeless aura. She inserted the obsidian key into the depression, her incantation unfolding, the timeless words blending into the stone of the room. Alessandro unleashed one last, spastic twitch of black energy, unleashing all its power straight onto Bianca. Luca let out a wild surge of power into a heap of his own body flung wildly across Bianca's, the power coursing through his body like flame. Reeling, his eyes reeling back and forth, but still upright, his eyes locked on Bianca. "Now!" he croaked. In a last, desperate attempt, Bianca forced the obsidian key into the hole on the dais. The stone burst in a blinding flash of light, filling the room. The sighs mounted to a fever, then stopped. Alessandro yelled out in agony, the black power of his shard unleashed and unbound. The light within his eyes was extinguished, his face set in a stunned and amazed look of wonder. The power coursing through him was being cut off. He stepped back, the crystal shard dropping from between his fingers, falling lifelessly on the hard cold ground. The Serpent's Eye magic, the old magic, at least for a second longer, had been repelled. The ritual had drained some of the vitality from him, however. Luca collapsed to the hard, icy ground, the dark energy rushing through him. Bianca dropped to her knees beside him, her face twisted with worry and fear. "Luca! No!" Isabella and Dante leaned over beaten Alessandro, swords still raised. But they did so just as a spectral, white glow started to rise from Alessandro's body. His eyes rolled back into his head, and an ancient, crabbed voice spoke from the room, not from Alessandro's mouth, but somehow deeper, in the very center of the Serpent's blood. You cannot cut what is immortal. The Serpent sleeps… but will awaken. And when it does… the rightful owners will awaken. Alessandro's shape disintegrated into dust at that point, leaving a line of unnatural silence and otherworldly echo behind from the very old voice. The Serpent's Eye threat was not destroyed but merely sleeping in suspended animation, waiting for the day that it would kill again, its tendrils writhing into the very life that coursed in their veins. The cutting had cost dearly, and the final payment on the Serpent's yarn remained to be heard.