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**Chapter 130: The Reckoning Beneath**
The earth trembled beneath their feet, the vineyard no longer whispering but demanding. The roots had parted fully now, exposing soil untouched for years—decades, perhaps longer. The siblings stood together, watching as something unseen called to them from below.
Elena's pendant pulsed wildly, the heat radiating against her skin in erratic waves. She tightened her grip around it, her breath coming slowly, controlled. "This is it," she murmured. "The vineyard's past—it's waiting for us."
Matteo knelt by the exposed soil, running his fingers carefully through it. The hum beneath his touch was no longer hesitant. It was alive. "The land isn't resisting this," he said. "It's revealing what it's hidden."
Isabella stepped forward, ever fearless. "Then we don't hesitate," she said firmly. "We uncover it."
Luca remained still, his sharp gaze locked onto the shifting ground. "The Veil feels heavier here," he muttered. "Not just a presence—something tangible."
Carlo exhaled, gripping the ornate box tightly. His silence stretched for a long, unsettling moment before he finally spoke. "The vineyard remembers every mistake," he said. "And it demands that mistakes be faced."
Elena turned to him, her pulse quickening. "What are we about to find?" she asked.
Carlo met her gaze, steady but weighted. "A choice that was made long ago," he said. "And the consequences it left behind."
The wind howled, cutting through the vineyard with unnatural force. The whispers of the Veil twisted, rising—no longer just sounds, but words. Faint, broken voices that had been trapped beneath the soil, now reaching toward the living.
Pietro took a step back, his usual smugness absent, replaced with sharp awareness. "You keep talking about the past," he said. "But what if the past isn't finished with us yet?"
Elena clenched her jaw, then stepped forward, lowering herself toward the trembling ground. "Then we face it," she said. "Because the vineyard isn't asking—it's demanding."
The earth shuddered once more, and then—
The truth began to rise.
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