Page 107

“It wasmy—”

“Can we just agree we both screwed up and promise never to touch each other again without making sure it’s okay first?”

He looked at the door.

“Dante, if you disappear, I’ll have to tell them why you left.Pleasedon’t make me do that.”

He didn’t want her, but she didn’t want him to go.

He bit his lip. “I’m still sorry.”

Not as sorry as she was.

Thirty-Four

Molti che vogliono l’albero fingono di rifiutare il frutto.

Many desire the tree who pretend to refuse the fruit.

DAYS BEFORE DIVORANDO: 15

Dante and Alessa ignored each other as much as two people could while trapped in close proximity, but the morning was so tense she was eager to start training. Nothing like a day of torturing friends to get a girl’s mind off the sting of rejection.

For their last day of training before Carnevale, however, Crollo blessed Saverio with a blistering heat wave, and the temperature plus the looming deadline meant tempers were short when she arrived in the training room.

The room grew stifling as the temperature ticked higher by the minute. Alessa and Josef teamed up to cool the room, but he couldn’t withstand her efforts long enough to provide much relief, and Saida’s attempt to cool everyone merely buffeted them with air so thick it felt like being thumped by a hot blanket.

“I can’t take a whole day of this.” Kaleb groaned. “It’s like trying to breathe boiling water.”

“There’s nowhere to go,” Kamaria said. “The whole island is scorching.”

“There’s theocean,” Kaleb said.

“We can’t go to the beach,” Alessa said. “We need to practice, and they’re all crowded.”

“Noteverybeach,” Dante said. He shrugged. “I know a place.”

Alessa should have objected, or at least hesitated, before agreeing, but the thought of spending their final training session together on a beach instead of the stuffy training room was too tempting.

An hour later, a train of lanterns bobbed through a tunnel growing dustier the farther they went.

Kamaria hung back with Alessa as they neared the far side of the island and got their first taste of fresh air. “So, did that wrestling match continue in your room last night? Tell me everything.”

Alessa laughed nervously.

“Noteverything. I’m not asking why he’s different. But since heis…did he kiss you?”

Alessa bit the inside of her cheek. “No.”

“But he wants to.” Kamaria lowered her voice as they caught up to the others.

“That’s the problem. He doesn’t.”

“Oh, please,” Kamaria said. “That boy wants you so bad his pants might catch fire.”

Alessa shielded her face against a sudden glare of sunlight as Kaleb and Dante wrenched open the rusted gate at the end of the tunnel. “I mean, if that’s the only way to get them off.”

At Kamaria’s burst of laughter, Dante turned back, glowering.