The Mafia's Heir's bride-Chapter 145: A shadows that wears a smile

The creature straightened, dripping black water that hissed when it touched the ground, steam rising like the breath of a demon waking from centuries of sleep.

It wasn’t human,It wasn’t alive.

And yet... it moved with the slow, deliberate elegance of something that remembered being worshipped.

Romeo felt his throat close.

Daisy clung to him, shaking violently.

Enzo rubbed his eyes, as if praying it was a hallucination.

Lorenzo whispered a broken curse.

"Che diavolo... is that?"

Helena didn’t answer.

For the first time—

the witch stepped back.

The creature’s head tilted, joints cracking like breaking bones. Its smile stretched wider, inhumanly wide, revealing teeth that gleamed like metal knives hammered in hell.

Then it spoke not in words,In echoes.

In a voice layered with thousands of whispers, thousands of dead breaths.

"The Chosen... must fall..."

Romeo felt the ground sway beneath him.

He glanced toward the river.

"Luca! Alessia—!"

But the river had swallowed its light.

All that remained was black water swirling like a vortex, waiting to devour the next soul.

The creature’s gaze followed Romeo’s, and its smile sharpened.

"He enters the womb...

... and she opens the gate..."

A deep pulse shook the ground.

The trees bent away, as if trying to flee.

Helena whispered under her breath, rapid, terrified incantations.

Romeo grabbed her cloak.

"You said Luca would find Alessia—what the hell is that thing?!"

Helena didn’t look at him.

Her eyes were fixed on the creature—

wide, terrified, defeated.

"It shouldn’t be here," she breathed.

"It wasn’t supposed to awaken yet..."

The creature’s head snapped toward her.

Helena choked on her next word.

It flickered—

A blur, appearing three steps closer without moving.

Daisy screamed. Romeo pulled her back.

Enzo raised his gun, But his hand shook so violently he couldn’t aim.

Lorenzo tried to stand, clutching his ribs.

"What do we do?" he rasped.

Helena exhaled sharply, fury shaking her voice.

"You run." Romeo blinked.

"What?"

She grabbed his face, her fingers trembling.

"You take her," she nodded toward Daisy, "and you run...Far....Do not look back."

"And Luca? Alessia?" Romeo snapped.

Helena’s eyes softened—tragic, resigned.

"If that thing touches either of them, prophecy ends, life ends, the river ends and everything ends."

Romeo shoved her away.

"No....No prophecy. No fate,You’re a witch, Helena—DO SOMETHING!"

Helena’s voice rose, raw and broken.

"I CAN’T!"...she said to him.

Silence slammed into them, Romeo froze.

Daisy’s breath hitched.

Enzo stared at Helena like she’d just confessed a murder.

Lorenzo whispered, "We’re dead."

Then—the creature laughed.

A hollow, echoing, rippling laugh that made the river churn and the sky flicker with unnatural lightning.

It raised its arms.

The shadows around its feet quivered, stretching outward like tendrils.

Romeo backed away.

"Helena—what does it want?"

"Alessia," Helena whispered.

The air went cold.

"Why?" Daisy gasped, voice fragile.

"Why her?"

Helena didn’t look at her.

"Because she’s the lock," she said quietly.

"And Luca... is the key."

Romeo’s heart dropped, "Meaning?"

"Meaning," Helena whispered, eyes glassing with a truth too old and cruel, "if that thing reaches her... it will open Luca. Completely."

Romeo stiffened.

"Open him... into what?"

Helena turned her head slowly toward him.

"A god."

The word fell like a blade.

Daisy shook her head.

"No... Luca isn’t—he can’t—"

"He isn’t," Helena agreed.

"Not yet."

The creature took another step toward them—

but something stopped it.

Its head jerked sharply toward the river.

A pulse, a heartbeat.

It was Luca’s.

Deep,thunderous, and unmistakably alive.

Romeo grabbed Daisy’s hand.

"LUCA!"

Enzo staggered back.

"He’s still fighting?!"

"I told you," Helena whispered, awe dawning in her voice.

"He was chosen."

But the creature growled—a sound that rattled the marrow of every bone.

"The key... is waking..."

Then it moved so fast ,Romeo barely saw it.

It surged toward the river—

toward the exact place Luca had disappeared.

Romeo panicked.

"No—NO! If it reaches him—!"

He didn’t think , didn’t breathe.

He ran....

Straight at the monster.

"ROMEO!" Daisy cried.

The creature swung its head toward him just as Romeo leapt, grabbed a broken branch from the ground, and swung it like he was trying to break the world.

The branch cracked against the creature’s arm.

It didn’t flinch.

It only grabbed Romeo by the throat.

The touch burned—cold, searing cold—like death itself closing fingers around his pulse.

Daisy screamed, Enzk shouted.

Lorenzo tried to pull himself upright.

But the creature lifted Romeo off the ground easily, eyeing him like a disappointment.

"Weak... human..."

Romeo clawed at its wrist, gasping for air.

"I’m..." he choked.

"I’m his brother."

The creature tilted its head.

Its smile widened.

"Then die first."

It tightened its grip—

"STOP!"

Helena’s voice exploded through the field.

A violent wind burst from her hands, slamming into the creature with the force of a hurricane.

Romeo dropped, collapsing onto the ground, coughing violently.

The creature staggered one step back.

Only one.

Helena’s eyes burned with silver light—power she had never dared use.

"You cannot touch him!" she shouted.

The creature regarded her with something like amusement.

"Witch... your power is borrowed...

Your life is borrowed...

The girl owes us..."

The ground cracked beneath its feet.

Daisy clutched Romeo, tears falling freely.

Enzo dragged Lorenzo away from the creature’s path.

Helena raised her hands again, shaking with effort.

"You cannot break the river bond! Alessia is—she is still fused with it!"

"And she will remain so...

Until the key breaks."

Then it happened.

The river burst with light again—

not silver.

Black. A whirlpool spiraled upward.

Screams echoed through the water—Luca’s, Alessia’s—layered, distorted, drowning inside the rush.

Romeo jolted.

"LUCA!"

Helena’s voice dropped to a whisper of horror.

"No... no, this can’t be happening yet..."

"What?!" Enzo yelled.

She shook her head violently, panic finally cracking her composure.

"If the creature reaches the river before Luca reaches Alessia—"

The creature vanished.

Reappeared at the river’s edge.

Helena’s eyes widened.

"—he will pull Luca out alone."

Romeo froze.

"Meaning what?". Helena swallowed.

"Meaning Luca returns..." She took one shaking step back....."without his humanity."

Romeo’s blood ran cold.

"NO—"

The creature plunged its entire arm into the river.

Black water rose like writhing serpents around it.

Helena screamed.

"He’s calling Luca! HE’S DRAGGING HIM OUT!"

Daisy held her breath.

The surface of the river trembled.

A silhouette appeared beneath it.

Rising...Rising...

Romeo whispered, terrified—

"Luca...?". But it wasn’t Luca who broke the surface.

Not even Alessia. What rose from the water—

Was a face,Feminine, eyes closed and features eerily peaceful.

Daisy gasped.

"That’s—HER!" Alessia.....

Floating upward, hair swirling around her like ink in water.

But her chest wasn’t moving.

Her lips were blue.

And the creature reached for her—Smiling.

Romeo screamed, voice breaking

"DON’T TOUCH HER!"

The creature’s fingertips brushed her cheek, The river exploded.

A shockwave sent everyone flying backward.

Helena hit the ground.

Daisy rolled, Enzo slammed into a tree.

Romeo skidded through the dirt, pain slicing through his ribs.

And then...

The water split open violently.

A second figure erupted up from the depths.

Violent, terrifying and radiating silver light that tore through the darkness.

Luca Morano.

His eyes pure silver.

His body burning with power—the river clinging to him like living armor.

He wasn’t breathing normally.

He wasn’t standing normally.

He wasn’t Luca,Not fully.

He grabbed Alessia’s body mid-air—gentle, achingly gentle—and pulled her against his chest.

The world held still.

Romeo whispered, voice trembling—

"Please... Luca... come back, brother..."

Luca lifted his face.

His silver eyes locked on the creature.

And he spoke in a voice that was not human.

"Don’t touch my wife." The creature snarled.

The sky darkened...The river screamed.

And Luca, still holding Alessia’s lifeless body....charged.

The earth split beneath his feet.

The creature roared while Helena screamed.

Daisy fell to her knees.

And Romeo shouted—

"LUCA, STOP—!" But he didn’t hear.

Couldn’t hear,didn’t want to hear.

The monster in him had chosen. The man in him was gone.

The two forces collided—Light against shadow.

Silver against black, Love against prophecy.

And in the instant before impact—

Alessia’s eyes snapped open. It was black ,not silver, not human.

Black as the creature’s smile.

Black as the prophecy Helena feared.

Luca didn’t see but Romeo did.....

Daisy did. And Helena choked on her breath.

"NO—NO—NO—THEY TOUCHED HER—THE CREATURE TOUCHED HER!"

Alessia opened her mouth—And whispered one word in a voice that did not belong to her:

"Luca." ....He turned—

Just as the creature’s claws slammed into his back.

The world went dark......