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Chapter Eighty-Six

CARMINE

THE NIGHT BEFORE

When I close my eyes, I see his hand on her.

Two black rings, fingertips digging into her, making indents deep enough to shadow.

Only erasing Charles III will erase this vision. She cannot command this away for me, because it’s painfully real.

The realness of the love is new for me. It hurts in a way I didn’t know anything could.

There’s a desperation to it. A greed. In my mind, I can connect it directly to the limited time I have to feel it.

It’s too easy to blame my love on my mortality.

To promise myself it will be gone once I am immortal again.

Then I look down at her lashes pressing against her freckled cheeks and watch her eyes scan the darkness under her lids, and nothing seems as eternal as my love. There’s not a star in the sky that will outlive it.

Hours after dawn, when this house is most quiet, there’s a commotion downstairs. Luna needs sleep more than I need to avoid the sun, so I slip out of bed, throw on a shirt, and leave the door open for her.

I scent a Strega from the top of the stairs.

“Where is she?” Giulia demands from the living room couch. Viaro should still be in the basement until sunset. He couldn’t have done a search already.

“Sleeping,” Nunzio answers, handing her a mug of tea. “Just sit here until the sun goes down.”

“I want to see her.”

“I won’t wake her now,” I say. They both look up at me, even the mother, without her eyes. “She’ll be glad you’re here, Giulia. Nunzio.” I hand him my dead phone. “I’m supposed to put this in rice? That means something?”

“Yeah.” He takes it. “I got it.”

“Where’s Viaro?”

“Still down below,” he calls from the kitchen.

“How did Giulia get here?”

“I’m right here,” she says. “My ears work fine.”

“Laro brought her.” Nunzio adds, “Before I could stop him, he just left.”

He has all the codes to the house. I kept Luna safe enough from Charles, but forgot about my renegade son.

The woman I knew as a little girl is open at the throat and blinded. It’s exactly the sight Luna couldn’t bear.

“She won’t let me kill my son.” I stand over her and inspect the bite.

“Wouldn’t be as easy as you think.”

Laro took a healthy amount but didn’t drain her unconscious. Admirable restraint. He must assume he can take another dip whenever he wants.

“Thrall doesn’t require you to defend my son’s manhood.”

“Someone oughta.”

“It should be him.”

“Sure.” She scoffs. “All those years in the villa, thinking I was special because I wasn’t in thrall… guess it had to end sometime.”

“Everything does.”

“Did the French one bite my daughter?”

“No.”

“Good.”

“That’s not going to save him. He touched her. I already can’t bear him to live. You can tell Laro that when he commands you to report whatever happens here.”

“If he asks, I’ll tell him everything.”

“Nunzio, be careful what you say.”

“Yes, boss.” He hands me an envelope. “Laro left this.”

“ Grazie . Take her up to my room and put her in my bed. She’ll be the first thing Luna sees when she’s up. Fair, Giulia?”

“Can I piss first?”

“Please do.” I sit by the window with the letter. “Good night, little one.”

“’Night, big one.”

Nunzio leads her up the stairs. I open the letter. It’s on blue-lined paper with five holes on the left side. There’s a key inside the fold.

Father,

This will be short out of necessity.

Strega blood settles the mind, doesn’t it? I can think for the first time since she fucked me up. She’s got some spell on you. I can see that now. It’s not your fault.

My uncle wants your blood and once he has it, your ring will fit whether he’s worthy or not. He assumed that he could trade blood and ring for the knife. He thought once he had Luna for leverage, you’d bend to get your immortality back. Obviously, he doesn’t really know you.

You don’t want to hear this, but you don’t have a chance against him. The knife is so deep there’s no map for it, and the labyrinth is a trap. Just forget it. Go hide or something.

I will return for Giulia. Take care of her. Do not try to keep her from me. She is mine.

~Laro

PS - The one known as Scout will not return to us after the incident on the boat. He has our Corvus blood. You’ll find him in the wine cellar. Ferrante will think him very interesting.

Laro does indeed seem more sane on paper. I read it again. The words have his stiffness and modernity. The writing has his loopy capitals and tight lowercase.

No map for the knife. The plans that are somehow on my phone will get me so far, then I’m on my own.

He thinks I should forget it. Go live however long I can, then just give up. Die.

Leave Luna behind for Charles to find.

Where could I hide her, and for how long?

No. Laro’s plan only works if Charles is dead, and I don’t love her. But he isn’t at all, and I do—more than I thought possible. I want to live as long as she does, just to keep loving her.

Nunzio comes downstairs.

“She’s all set,” he says.

“ Grazie .” I stand. “Did Ario give you the code to the armory?”

“Yeah, let me write it down.”

When he hands me the scrap of paper with the code, I give him a last instruction.

“Laro’s letter could be a trap. Protect both Strega with your life. Ario and Viaro will do the same. If I’m not back in an hour, hide them for the night, then take my wife on a plane home.”

“What about the mother?”

“She’s Laro’s now. That’s why I trust this letter.”