Page 36 of Blood Debt

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Bellarosa Estate – Near Midnight

The walls are moving.

Or maybe it’s me. Yeah—definitely me.

“Steady, Don,” Matteo mutters, one arm hooked under my shoulder, the other gripping my wrist with the kind of grip he usually saves for disarming men twice his size. “You’re not walking in a straight line. You’re zigzagging like a cursed sailboat.”

I laugh. It comes out loud and cracked.

“You know what’s really crooked?” I say, pointing too hard at the air. “Love. Love’s crooked. Women? Crooked. Pretty eyes, crooked mouths. One night. One night and then poof!—gone.”

“You’re drunk,” Matteo sighs. “Spectacularly drunk. Try walking, not talking.”

“She just left, Matteo,” I hiss the name, slurring the ‘t’. “No goodbye. No note. Nothing. I—I looked for her. I looked.”

He exhales heavily. His arm tightens around me as I drag my feet forward.

We round the corner—walls yawning too wide, shadows tilting across the marble floors like they’re drunk too—and that’s when we see her.

She’s on the staircase. Descending slowly. Barely making a sound.

The maid. Serafina. No. Elia. No. Serafina.

She pauses at the foot of the stairs when she sees us. She bows slightly—shoulders curved inward, chin dropped, hands folded in front like she’s about to ask permission to breathe.

I squint at her.

Something in my chest twists.

“You,” I say, blinking hard. “C’mere.”

She hesitates.

Matteo straightens. “Maybe not the best—”

“I said come here,” I snap, louder than I mean to. My voice echoes off the stone arch.

Her head bobs.

She steps forward with soft, careful movements. Her shoes barely tap the floor.

I look at her, and my mouth twists in something between a grin and a grimace.

“What do you want?” I ask. “It’s the middle of the fucking night.”

Her hands twitch at her sides. “Forgive me, sir. No one’s assigned me any duties yet. I’ve been idle. I—I didn’t want to displease.”

Her voice is small. Wrapped in something careful. Worn.

I laugh. It tumbles out of me like a slow roll down a steep hill.

“Duties?” I say, arms spreading. “Okay. Okay, good. Here’s your duty. Lead me. Lead me to my royal room, sweet maid.”

I take a step—then two—and the world tips.

My weight lands on her.