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Chapter One Hundred Four

CARMINE

Viaro got himself a PlayStation, which he says is like an Atari, but then remembers I missed that by a couple of years. He cradles a little box in both hands and touches it while cartoon people fight on the screen. Apparently, these two things are related.

“I found them,” says Ario, holding up my phone. He’d dug it from the bin of rice in the pantry and it worked.

I sit at the table with him. He shows me where Orlando put the architectural drawings.

The entrance is marked with a red circle on what seems to be a section of wall at the outer edge of the property.

While Viaro grunts and shouts at the cartoon, Ario and I engineer how I’ll get in and out.

We have to assume the liminal is closed off the same way it was at Buchra’s Morocco riad, where we had to jump out a window to switch into our bird forms.

“This way.” I draw my finger along a line between the walls.

“All three of us can’t get in that way.” Ario hands back my phone.

“That’s exactly my next order of business.” I flip the phone face down. “First, I’m going in alone, but not for the knife. Not right away.”

“What the fuck are we here for?”

“Gotta say, capo”—Viaro tucks his tongue in his mouth long enough to speak—“he’s got a point.”

“You two won’t be recognized. Go in the front.

Act like you need to be invited in. I’ll get in between the walls.

But I won’t go to the door. Instead, I’m heading up.

Wait for me. Viaro, stay with the humans.

Ario, go in the back where the kindred are bidding on donors.

When I’m up, I’ll tell you where to meet me. ”

“Sounds like…” Viaro starts a reply but ends with, “You fucking motherfucker, get off me.”

“What he meant is,” Ario says, “that sounds like you’re trying to get rid of us.”

“There’s something I have to take care of first.”

“What is that?”

“Just do what I’m telling you.” I get up.

“Nah, nah, no way, fuck! No!” Viaro ends on a shout, tossing his black box in the air. He rolls onto his stomach, arms draped over the side of the couch. “I ain’t going anywhere unless you tell us what you’re doing first. Not safe. Not cool.”

“It’s ‘safer’ and ‘cooler’ if you don’t know.”

“Honestly, capo?” Ario pauses and makes eye contact with Viaro, who rolls into a sitting position. “If you can’t trust us…”

“This isn’t a matter of trust.”

Ario stands and goes to the coat rack for a bright red scarf. “Ever since you woke up, you’ve been working overtime to protect your kingdom, or your wife, or yourself.” He wraps the scarf around his neck and puts on his coat. “And now you’re protecting us.”

“You both stayed with me while I was in stasis,” I say. “I lost Laro. Ferrante’s the one in stasis now. Maybe I didn’t protect you enough.”

“You can’t protect everything without losing something.”

“Put that on a fucking sticker,” Viaro says with his head in the fridge, as if anything in there has satisfied him for eighty years.

“Capo.” Ario buttons his coat to fight a cold he does not feel. “You woke from stasis with a fire to make an army and take over the world. Now, you’re pushing away the last of us.”

“That’s not…” I glance at Viaro crossing his arms while he leans against the sideboard. What Ario’s trying to say sinks in, and it’s terrifying. “Don’t leave me over this.”

“Ah, quit that,” Viaro says.

Can I tell them not to leave? They have been my closest allies through everything. The best days of my life were with them. If those are over, why would they stay? Don’t they have a right to their own ambitions?

Why does it matter to me all of a sudden?

This is Luna’s doing. She’s made me see the world as a leader instead of a ruler.

“Things have changed,” I say. “I don’t want to command an army.

I don’t want to be king over other kings.

I don’t want to remake the house of Strega that I had.

If that’s the king you need to follow, that’s not who I am anymore.

We know who that is. We’ve seen Charles—the abominations he creates. Follow him. You know where he is.”

“Come on,” Ario says, trying to soothe me.

I don’t want to be soothed. I want to finish the thought that’s been in the back of my mind since Luna showed up in Club Somma, traveling on a particle of light.

“All I want, right now, is your company. Not as soldiers or servants. I want my brothers , and my uncle Ferrante, and whoever else I enjoy enough to make. I want my wife, just the one, for the rest of her days.” It feels so good to say, out loud, that I don’t have the ambitions forced on me.

“A small colony. A big family. If that’s what you want too, now you know that’s what I’m working on. ”

“What about Laro?” Viaro’s question thrusts a hot poker into a part of my heart that has been sleeping. “Kinda miss that kid.”

Ario jabs Viaro with a look that demands he shut the fuck up.

“I don’t know,” I say, because I don’t. “He’s with Charles, and Charles kidnapped my wife. He touched her. I’ll break him myself.”

In my anger, I’ve told them my intentions.

“King cannot fight king,” Ario says.

“Correct. That’s why I’m going to him alone. If you participate in my crimes, you’ll be guilty of them. So, please. Trust me. Go in the front door. Let me take care of him, and I’ll meet you.”

“What if he kills you because we weren’t there?” Ario asks.

“Then the knife is a moot point.” I put my hand on my friend’s shoulder.

“Do you even know where he is?”

“Scout told me where to find him.”

“I don’t think you can kill him, capo.”

“A few years of stasis is all I’m trying to get.”

“How?”

“I have a plan. My powers are getting a glow-up.” I inadvertently use Amon’s words.

“What does that even mean?”

“I’m done.” Viaro grabs his jacket. “Do what you want. I’m going to get something to eat. There’s a new club with live donors on ketamine. I’m going in the front door.”

“Owner’s a real asshole.” Ario slides on a hat.

“Steer clear of him,” I say. “And don’t bid more than you have. It’s only going to line the Bourbon’s pocket.”

“You know what?” Ario says. “Fine. I’m going to make sure we’re not too far away.”

“You coming?” Viaro asks Ario as he heads up the stairs.

These two kindred exist inside a kingdom so small, they represent about a third of it, and they remain utterly loyal to a distracted, weakened king.

“You should meet us, capo,” Ario calls down.

“When you’re done!” Viaro adds. “Doing whatever!”

“Or we’ll find you!” Ario whips around the landing.

“Don’t do that.” I leap up the stairs to the landing, but he’s already up another flight. “Let me take care of it.”

“Go ahead, man.” Viaro picks up the pace. “Be that way.”

“We’re not stopping you.” Ario is now running up the third flight. “You’re the boss.”

“I am your king!” I’m laughing and chasing, taking three steps at a time.

“But Your Highness!” Viaro bursts onto the roof and we all follow. “We are subjects of the raven ring!”

Ario leaps off the roof, shouting, “Your Majesty’s humble servants.”

Viaro laughs. “By the leave of Your Grace!” He jumps off the side.

Two crows rise over the roof and speed south.

“Beloved idiots,” I say to myself with a smile.

When they’re dots in the darkness, I go into the front foyer, where Scout awaits on the wooden bench, legs crossed, staring at his phone.

“I’m ready.” He stands when I arrive.

“Let’s do this quick.”

Yes. We are finna go NPC hunting.

Scout freezes when he hears Amon’s excited voice. I sigh and hold out my arm for the spider hanging on a web between the umbrella stand and the wall. It climbs on.

“Scout, this is Amon.”

“It’s a demon?”

“It is, and it’s going to possess the asshole of your choosing.” The spider crawls into my jacket pocket. “Right before I kill them.”