Page 150 of Unravel Me

Granddad Silvio changes too, taking on his strange magical form. It’s not like I’m unaware of their nature. My dad has hinted more than once that they were magical ABOs… that his bloodline was an unusual one, but I didn’t care.

So I just snort. "I don’t give a shit about your magic tricks. I only wonder if you can withstand lead. Where’s Mauro? He’s a traitor, I repeat. No one leaves the mafia without the capo’s blessing! And now… that would be me."

I raise my gun and point it at Renato’s head.

"Why have you never gotten rid of that scar on your face, Rocco?" he asks with astonishing calm.

"I’m counting to ten, and then I shoot," I say as I click the safety off.

Then, unexpectedly, Grandpa Silvio takes a step toward me and says, "The snapdragons, grandson… do you remember how many of them can grow from a single stem?"

"What the fuck are you talking about, those stupid flowers again?" I snarl, but as I turn my head toward Granddad, I don’t see Renato grab my wrist at the same moment.

Damn. His grip is astonishingly strong as he twists my gun toward the ceiling.

My finger instinctively pulls the trigger, and the sound of a gunshot rings out.

Suddenly, I realize I can’t move.

His grip is powerful and paralyzing, leaving me standing completely motionless, as if I’ve been turned to wood by a spell.

What the fuck!

Then Granddad grabs my other wrist… and a wave of fury floods through me. How dare they! I’m a new capo. I’ll destroy them…

Renato speaks slowly.

"We lost you when Tito took you. One part of you can no longer be saved, but there is still another part we can try to rescue. You’re from our Silvari lineage, and this gives us the possibility to do so."

I want to say something, laugh, tell them that I don’t have any other ‘part’, that I am what Tito created, and I intend to be proud of it.

"Do you know what the most important power of nature is, Rocco?"

Silvio’s face, so different now, glowing with light and transformed to resemble tree bark, moves a little closer to me, and his wooden lips whisper,

"It separates the wheat from the chaff…"

The next moment, my body is ripped apart by a violent wave of brutal, cold, relentless energy.

When I collapse to the ground, I am no longer alone.

I glance to the side and see my own face, now without the scar, blinking in shock, lost and confused.

That last expression is one I share too…

"We will not be able to save you, because you chose your path, your fate. Yet we believe that the little boy who used to walk with me along the garden paths, who cried when he saw a grasshopper with a broken leg, who cared for his younger brothers with such love, and who had the most tender heart of a good gardener, may still be saved."

"What the fucking hell did you do?!" I blurt out…

That other version of me, my mirror double, the doppelganger… looks toward me with wide, shocked eyes.

What the fuck just happened?!

A deep silence falls.

Then, Renato leans forward slightly, and says, "Don't come back here again, Rocco. Ever. Because if you return, within two days, you will die. This is the deal with Fate we're making today."

Shaking with rage, overwhelmed by the absurdity of it all and the sting of defeat, I bolt for the door, already thinking about how I'm going to get revenge on those bastards…