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Chapter Fifty-Eight

CARMINE

Flight in my human form is more of a controlled jump that has to be perfected with years of practice. It’s a show-off move, and I regret that I didn’t just call a cab.

I could have dropped her. I could barely hold a fucking orange. Even with her blood in me, when I feel as powerful as I ever did, I can’t fly with her. It’s not worth the risk.

Then the boat that should not be there. If the liminal does not match the Manifest, it is the work of vampires. But vampires cannot get to the center of a lake without a bridge. There was no bridge.

She calls a car with my phone. She says Laro must have set something up already. I’m sure she’s right. I can’t see that bridge either. I’m obsessed with one question:

What if I’d dropped her and couldn’t catch her?

I rush her back to Il Blocco’s penthouse. The butler, Alex, is waiting in front. Good. I can’t take Luna in and I don’t want her to take a single step alone. As we get closer, Corragio, the goddess’s lawyer, comes outside, with Sam right behind.

I take out my wallet to pay the driver. Luna looks at me as if a fern just sprouted from the top of my head.

“What?”

“You paid already. On the phone,” she says. Now I’m the one checking the top of her head for foliage. “Just the tip.”

She gets out. I give the driver a hundred in case she’s wrong and start out with her. She’s holding onto the door as if she’s dizzy. I hold her up.

“Mrs. Beneforte,” Alex says, “we missed you.”

“I’m fine,” she says.

Alex gives me a malocchio . All of them are pissed off. Even Sam, who doesn’t appear to have emotions at all, has made room for anger.

“Let’s get you taken care of.” Alex won’t look at me as they hold their arms out to Luna.

She takes a few steps in that direction, then turns to me. “Good night.”

“Sleep well.”

She turns fully, her wavy brown hair half-covering a fistful of lightning bolts.

I should be taking her to bed. I should be bathing her and tucking her in. She should know the care she’s entitled to is the care she’ll get once this is over.

As fast as I can, I get in front of her. She gasps in fear. I went too fast.

“Luna.”

“I’m fine,” she says.

“You’re safe here.”

“I know.”

Alex tugs her hand. I’m not ready for her to go. I have one last thing to say.

“Thank you.”

She smiles and leans up to kiss my lips. “You’re very welcome.”

She goes inside with a fistful of lightning on the back of her sweatshirt, and I’m left to deal with the consigliere to the goddess and his personal seraph.