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‘What are you going to do?’I questioned, with a thread of fear tainting my tone.
The look Salvatore shot me, silenced any further questions that were in my head. He didn’t have to say the words. What he was going to do had nothing to do with me, a mere mafia princess, not even a woman yet. I had no real rights, not even the right to have my question answered.
Romeo and Alessio stared hard, as they silently dared each other, before they did what they’d been ordered to do. Quickly, Salvatore made a cut across each of their palms. As I watched blood rise to the surface of the cuts, I swallowed down a gasp that was threatening to fall away from my lips.
Salvatore placed their hands together, positioning their fingers so they could clasp each other’s hands tightly. A few seconds passed until Romeo and Alessio both broke out into broad smiles before hugging each other tightly.
I wasn’t sure I would ever understand boys and men.
‘Without a sound of pain between you, you have both shed blood for your family’s honour and become blood brothers. Sworn blood brothers will fight side by side until death… Romeo, Alessio, do you two swear to defend each other and your families?’
Again, they both replied with an instant yes.
‘Then, all of us through you two share the same blood, the blood of our ancestors… let’s hope it’s enough… Now, get out of my sight and get cleaned up.’
A sarcastic round of applause rang out from my older brother, who was still assuming the position Salvatore had demanded of him. In silent agreement, not one of us on the beach acknowledged him nor the pathetic noise he was making. I understood that I wasn’t his only sibling who had been ashamed of him that day.
I followed quickly behind Alessio, strangely eager to move away from the presence that was Salvatore. Until now, the boy turned man had held a magnetic attraction for me. But being this close, feeling his dominance intimately, I just knew I needed to stay close to my brother, even if I didn’t have the maturity to understand why.
‘And what was your role in this, little bird?’
Little bird? Is he talking to me?
I spun around and finding his dark eyes resting on me alone, I directed my answer at him.
‘My name is Serafina Giordano.’
‘I’m aware who you are, Serafina.’ Once again amused, he replied as he wiped his thumb over his blade, cleaning up the blood in one swipe.
His eyes looked down at his thumb momentarily before he looked back at me.
‘I… I was coming over to try to get them to stop,’ I offered, once again transfixed by him.
‘Why?’ His dark eyes narrowed as he tried to find the answer to his question by staring deep inside me. ‘For years, you’ve escaped your family by coming down here to the beach. Taking flight like a bird every time you could. So, why stand up and be counted today?’
‘Today mattered.’ I didn’t have to think about my answer. My siblings, apart from Zeno, meant the world to me.
‘You’re right, it did.’ He nodded in agreement with me and closed the distance between us. ‘But not for the reason you think.’
‘No?’ My voice sounded thick with confusion.
‘No, it mattered because today we met for the first time, little bird.’ His voice, although still deep, sounded gentler in its tone as he answered my question. ‘We are destined to be together.’
Salvatore stepped even closer, until all I could breathe in was him. He pressed his thumb to my throat, wiping the already congealing blood to the dip at the base of my neck. For as long as I could remember, I’d wanted to get closer to him. All the times during our month-long holidays every September, when I’d found him nearby up on the cliffs that surrounded our home and when I’d found the little gifts he would occasionally leave me, I’d dreamt of having the ability to entice him closer to me, but it had never happened, until today.
But with both of our families’ blood drying on my skin, I felt marked by him and liking it and hating it in equal measure, I began to step backwards as I attempted to put some distance between us. Frightened by the weird feelings coursing around my body, I knew I needed the sanctuary of my parents’ house.
I couldn’t ever remember a time when I’d run back towards my home, but with Salvatore’s laughter at my reaction ringing in my ears, that day I did.
But two days later, I was back down at the beach, seemingly unable to keep away. As I’d eaten the cookies he’d once again left for me, he’d watched me intently from his place between the rocks. Then, as he got up to leave, he proffered me a smile and after placing two of his fingers to his full looking lips, he blew me a kiss.
As I’d instinctively touched my lips in response, I understood then at fourteen years old, that I was in love. Salvatore De Luca scared and intrigued me in equal measure, but I realised that he was going to be the passion and no doubt the pain that mapped out the rest of my life.
CHAPTER SEVEN
SERAFINA
Fifteen Years Old
