Page 102 of Lourdes & the Mafia
And Ramiel doesn’t wake up.
“Lorenzo, he’s not breathing!” His chest is still. Too still. “Lorenzo!”
“Amore, I need you to calm down and let me concentrate. This… this is a wound unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and I need to heal him.” His voice, though appears calm at first, is hard with an undertone of something aggressive.
I fall backwards on my ass, turning towards Kane.
His palms are facing upwards, a mass of mangled flesh and blood that oozes from between the spaces of his fingers. They look ripped to shreds, painful, and yet he isn’t staring at them at all. He’s looking at his brother, eyes glossed over with panic.
“Kane.” I draw his attention towards me. “Your hands.” On instinct I reach out—to soothe him, I don’t know—but he pulls away, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket. Like it doesn’t hurt him to do so. Like it doesn’t matter that he’s harmed because Ramiel is more important.
My heart breaks then.
It takes everything in me to look back at Ramiel, my heart torn in two different directions. I have to not let myself get distracted, though. This isn’t about me or my feelings. This is about the men I’ve come to care about being hurt.
“We need to get him to the river,” Lorenzo says finally, pulling back. “It will help.”
“The river?”
“The River of Lament.”
That’s when I look around and see what I didn’t before. A foggy, gray and blue valley and beyond, a forest with clusters of hundreds of trees. And beyond that?
Lights floating through the air in the shape of human figures.
Souls.
Lorenzo pushes to a stand and with a flick of his wrist, his magic lifts an unconscious Ramiel to the air.
“Welcome, Amore, to my domain.”
The Land of Lament is all gray skies with slight slivers of sunlight peeking through the foliage. There is a certain melancholy throughout, though that could be on account of the humming promise of music echoing through the air. Like they were permanently singing dirges.
It is… sad.
Then there are the souls. Wisps of light that float and moan in between trees. A cold breeze sweeps over my skin when they drift by, making the hairs over me stand on end.
The Land of Lament makes me feel a mixture of sensations. Sadness. Melancholy.
Peace.
My mind immediately calmed after the initial panic, though that has more to do with the ambiance, because I’m still worried about how still Ramiel is. How Kane still has his hands in his pockets, like he doesn’t want to draw attention to his own pain because Ramiel’s is more important.
But Lorenzo guides us through the forest of his domain with quick, expert footsteps. I try not to take in the scenery. The blue trees that look like they’re weeping sap from their twisted trunks.
We reach a clearing with a glowing ground. It isn’t until we approach it that I notice it’s a lake with glowing, white water.
It’s still, the surface shining like a mirror.
“The Lake of Sorrows,” Lorenzo explains as he slowly lowers Ramiel near the edge of the bank. “It has healing properties.”
I’m silent, choosing to observe as Lorenzo begins something that seems almost ritualistic.
My heart beats in time to the rhythm of the quick jerks of his wrist. The water pools from the lake, a slow snake rising along and bending with the movements he makes. He’s methodic about it as it settles over Ramiel’s body like a blanket of mist.
I hold my breath and wait… and wait…
Ramiel takes in a frightening, shuddering breath.
