Page 99

Chapter Ninety

CARMINE

I will go upstairs. Come back down. Start over.

I pass the open door to Nunzio’s room.

Deadass.

I stop and bend my neck to the ceiling in frustration. “Amon.”

Are you going into the tunnel for that knife tonight, or nah?

Amon is speaking from inside the snake, hissing to my ears and letting my mind decipher the words. I put my hands over the metal rim of the tank.

“That’s not your business.”

Going to leave her behind?

“She’s in thrall to me. You have no access and you never will.”

I can use the little light traveler tho. Giulia. Still a snack.

“Giulia is too old to give birth again.”

There are children’s children’s children.

The child’s children are Luna’s. He’s insinuating violence against Luna and her children after her.

“I am busy, Amon. Get out of Puzzo before my snare-setter finds you.”

How will you unalive your villain? He is overpowered. You’re out of pocket thinking you can defeat him.

“Thanks for the pep talk.” I take my hands off the metal rim of the tank and feel just a slight tug against my ring. The rock rushes to the metal, hitting it with a tap.

Lava rock has magnetic properties .

Has my ring become magnetized? Or has the tank?

Electromagnetic fields that’ll turn that ring into a bullet.

I run the signet along the glass. The pull is weaker, but it’s there.

Glass doesn’t magnetize. Neither does wood.

Are you sure there’s no metal in that stake?

“It was you.”

Don’t know what you’re talking about, broski.

“The stake.” I poke my chest. “It’s magnetic. It’s not possible, but it is. You can make anything magnetic. You were the source of it. You were inside someone when they staked me.”

Oh, that? Oop. Gotta cop. My fail.

“Who was it?”

Whoever I want, that’s who.

It was Laro. It had to be. Laro put Amon inside him to split Giulia.

I trusted him. I let him bring Giulia back. I let him lead Scout into the wine cellar. The demon is right. I am weak.

And yet, it couldn’t have been him. Why would Laro try to kill me then tend me for fifty years? Why would he need a demon inside him to do what he could have done without it?

It had to be one of the Strega.

Also impossible.

“They were all in thrall. You couldn’t possess them. So who was it?”

Better to ask who it’s gonna be next time. Unless you stop getting between me and my girls.

“Not as long as I breathe, demon. You will never come to life through a Strega.”

But I will, and soon. You’ll meet Charles before you get your mitts on that knife. He’ll yeet your life into the sun. Then you’ll die. Thrall’s broken. Boom. She’ll be mine. Bet.

“I will kill Charles before that happens.”

You will not. You are weaksauce. Your body will die without even trying. Then thrall is broken. Boom. She’ s mine. Hits different tho.

“I will kill you then.” I reach into the tank and grab the snake right below its jaw, ready to rip it apart like the rest. As if Amon won’t come back as something else to torment me as this disease eats away at me.

As if it won’t just wait for Charles to find me.

“If I find the knife and use it, I’m going to spend immortality finding a way to destroy you. ”

Betting markets would say otherwise. Think about the downside risk. If you hack immortality again, I just wait until I can greenlight season two of Staking Carmine.

“That’s not going to happen again.”

Statistically speaking, it will. Forever is a long time for you.

“We’ll see.”

Let me do failure management for you. Charles will probably unalive you. Then I will take her. Or you will die of brainsick. And then I will take her. You will be dead, and I will take her and her children. Do you not understand how dank you need to be to secure the bag? You are not sigma enough.

“What if I do get the knife, Amon?”

You don’t have the skillset to use it. You will cut out the heart and leave the stake. Or turn into a human man I can slip inside. Then I will take her.

My throat contracts, but I can’t swallow the lump that’s grown there.

And the white-cape one will not let her rest.

Luna’s blood makes me strong enough to fight Charles—maybe even fairly. But what if the knife doesn’t do what Ferrante thinks it does? How will I outfight the Bourbon fuck and Amon when they both come for her again and again? I only have to lose once to lose everything.

Then I’ll be gone. Thrall will be broken. She won’t even get to use her freedom before Amon and Charles come after her. One to drain her blood. Another to do worse.

I’ve been on borrowed time for centuries. I’ll take risks with my own life, but the risks to hers are far greater.

I let the snake go. I have no comeback. No threats. I haven’t even played, and I’ve already lost.

“I hope you live forever.”

No need to be salty.

I turn my back on the sneaky immortal, but I have ears to hear his last pitch.

What if your powers got a glow-up?

What if they did? With demon powers, I could send Charles back to the goddess a hundred ways.

I face the tank, where the snake uncoils itself and lifts its head.

“I could steal your power without your consent, demon. You are weaksauce. You’re the one without the skillset to get out until I sleep.”

That is too messy for the fam. But what if we dealmaxx? What if I consent, for a price?

“You know I don’t need your consent to use your power.”

Without it, I make no promises. If you take what’s mine and you ghost this life, then I will take her down to the very cells. But if you do one little favor for me, I will consent and I will not claim her.

“For as long as she lives?”

For the blink of an eye, yes.