Chapter 6 - The Lullaby in the WallsChapter 8: The Voice Beneath the FloorAlina knew the lullaby before the second verse began.
It was a melody without a name, four soft notes repeated in a pattern Rosa had invented after Alina’s father disappeared. She used to sing it while washing dishes, braiding Alina’s hair, or locking every window before sunset.
The woman beyond the wall sang it exactly as Rosa had.
Alina moved toward the sound.
Dante caught her arm.
“Don’t.”
“That is my mother’s song.”
“Which is why it’s a trap.”
“If she is alive—”
“Your mother has been dead for fourteen years.”
“You said Luca was dead.”
The words stopped him.
Enzo’s team swept the office. One guard removed a painting from the wall and found nothing behind it. Another checked the ventilation system. The lullaby continued, muffled but unmistakable.
Leo cried in Alina’s arms. She pressed her lips to his hair while Dante studied the walls.
“The sound is traveling through the old service shafts,” he said.
“This building was built over a former hospital,” Dr. Moreno explained. “There are tunnels beneath the foundation.”
“Then we go down,” Dante said.
“You’re not taking her,” Enzo objected.
“She is the reason they opened the tunnel.”
Alina looked at Dante. “I’m coming.”
“You have no weapon.”
“I have a baby.”
“That is not a weapon.”
“It is the reason they are afraid.”
Dante held her gaze for a moment, then handed her a small pistol.
She stared at it.
“I don’t know how to use this.”
“Point it at someone who wants to hurt you and pull the trigger.”
“That is not instruction.”
“It is enough.”
They found the entrance beneath a steel maintenance hatch in the parking garage. The tunnel smelled of wet concrete and rust. Dante went first, Enzo behind him, and Alina followed while holding Leo beneath her coat.
The lullaby grew louder.
At the bottom of the stairs, a narrow corridor divided into three directions. The lights overhead flickered in sequence, leading toward the center passage.
“Someone wants us to follow,” Enzo said.
“Then we follow,” Dante replied.
“That is reckless.”
“So is waiting.”
They moved deeper beneath the city.
The corridor walls were marked with faded numbers and old hospital signs. Alina saw names carved into the concrete. Some were dates. Others were only initials.
Then she saw a red dragon painted beneath an arrow.
Her lungs tightened.
“That symbol is newer,” she said.
Dante touched the paint with two fingers. “Still wet.”
The singing stopped.
For a moment, there was absolute silence.
Then a woman spoke from the darkness.
“Lina?”
Alina nearly dropped the gun.
The voice was older than she remembered, rougher, but the shape of it was Rosa’s.
“Mom?”
Dante stepped in front of her.
“Show yourself,” he commanded.
A figure appeared at the end of the corridor.
She wore a dark coat and carried a lantern. Her hair was gray at the temples, but her face remained hidden beneath a hood.
“Come closer,” the woman said.
Alina moved around Dante.
“Don’t,” he warned.
The woman lifted the lantern.
It revealed not Rosa, but a stranger with pale skin and a scar across her mouth.
“Your mother taught me that song,” she said. “She told me to use it if you ever came looking.”
“Who are you?”
“Clara Bell.”
The nurse from the estate.
Dante raised his weapon. “Where is my brother?”
Clara looked at him. “Still fighting.”
“For whom?”
“For you.”
“Why did you alter my son’s records?”
“I didn’t.”
“Then who did?”
Clara’s eyes moved to Leo. “The same person who arranged the fire fourteen years ago.”
Alina stepped forward. “You knew my mother?”
“I was her nurse when she was hiding in the hospital.”
The world seemed to narrow around the words.
“She was alive?”
“For three days after the fire.”
Alina’s knees weakened.
“You let me believe she died.”
“I was a nineteen-year-old trainee. I was threatened by men wearing the dragon. Your mother begged me to find you before they did.”
“Did you?”
“I saw you escape through the alley. I followed, but by the time I reached the street, you were gone.”
Alina’s eyes burned.
“What did my mother say?”
Clara looked at Leo.
“She said her daughter would one day be protected by the dragon she feared.”
Dante’s head turned toward Alina.
“Why would she say that?”
“Because she knew Rafael’s sons were not the true danger.”
Before Clara could continue, a red laser appeared on her chest.
“Down!” Dante shouted.
The first bullet struck the wall. Dante shoved Alina behind a concrete pillar. Enzo fired toward the opposite corridor, while Clara dropped the lantern and disappeared into darkness.
Leo cried.
Alina crouched with the baby beneath her coat. The laser moved across the corridor, searching.
Dante leaned close. “When I tell you, run to the blue door.”
“Where is Clara?”
“She knows the tunnels.”
“She can’t be left.”
“She is not our priority.”
“She knows what happened to my mother.”
“And you have a baby in your arms.”
He was right, but Alina hated him for saying it.
The rifle fired again. Dante lifted his weapon and fired toward the muzzle flash. Enzo threw a smoke canister. White clouds filled the corridor.
“Now!” Dante shouted.
Alina ran.
The blue door was twenty feet away. She reached it just as a bullet struck the metal beside her head. Dante grabbed her from behind, spun her into the doorway, and covered her body with his.
They fell onto a narrow platform above an underground loading bay.
Leo screamed between them.
Dante lifted his head. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“The baby?”
“No.”
For one breath, their faces were inches apart.
His eyes were furious, but beneath the fury was fear.
Not for himself.
For them.
Alina saw it and looked away first.
Across the loading bay, a van started.
Clara stood beside it.
“Get in!” she shouted.
They crossed the platform while gunfire erupted behind them. Dante pushed Alina into the van, climbed after her, and pulled the doors shut.
Clara drove through a service gate and into the rain.
For the first time since the restaurant, Dante had no control over where they were going.
May you like
Clara looked at him through the mirror.
“Your brother is alive,” she said. “But he is running out of time.”
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