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“No, of course not. But I could practice on you.”

“You mean torture me.”

She flinched. “But not kill you.”

“I’m notinvincible. I’ll die if you try hard enough.”

“But you’re closer than anyone else. You keep saying you don’t care about your safety. Is it so different from fighting for money? You could help me save Saverio.”

“What’s Saverio ever done for me?”

“There arechildrenwho will die horrible deaths.”

“Children grow up and become cruel like everyone else.”

“I didn’t want this duty either, but at least I’m trying.”

“You’re the savior, not me. I’m the selfish one, remember? This isyourproblem.”

She wanted to rake her nails down his face, to rip the cold disdain away by force. “Nice try, Dante, but it’s too late. Iknowyou. There’s no way you’re fine with letting thousands of children die when you couldn’t even ignore one kid in trouble.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I saw you with that beggar girl getting pushed around by one of Ivini’s goons. You stopped him.”

Dante threw his head back. “Don’t make me into some kind of hero because I hate bullies. I amexactlywhat everyone says I am.”

“I don’t care what the stories say. You’re a good person—”

He threw his hands up. “Stop! You don’t know what kind of person I am. You have no idea what I’ve done, who I’ve hurt.”

“Then tell me. Convince me. Prove you’re evil. I dare you.”

He tore at his hair. “Fine! There wasoneperson who tried to help me after I ran away. Just one.Ever. And I killed her.”

Twenty-Nine

Quando l’amico chiede, non v’è domani.

When a friend asks, there is no tomorrow.

DAYS BEFORE DIVORANDO: 19

Alessa’s blood went cold. “I don’t believe you.” Her words didn’t sound convincing, even to herself.

“Believe it.” His voice was flat. “This kid found me after I ran away. Couldn’t have been more than ten. Trips over a bloody, barely conscious stranger on the beach, and instead of running, decides to nurse me back to health.” He laughed bitterly. “She saw me heal. I couldn’t hide it.”

Alessa hid a shiver. The Dante she knew—or thought she knew—would never kill an innocent child to keep them quiet. But maybe she didn’t know him at all.

“So, I lied. Said I’d found the Fonte della Guarigione high on a cliff. She wanted to know where, kept asking, so I kept lying, moving it higher, making it too hard to get to. But she wouldn’t let it go.”

A curious child. A fearful secret. And Dante, on the run and desperate to hide the truth.

Alessa was going to be sick.

His eyes burned like embers. “I found her body the next morning, shattered on the rocks below.”

She swallowed back tears, even as her knees went weak with relief. “An accident. You didn’t mean for her to get hurt.”