Page 86 of Tragic Empire

*Nico has left the chat*

Leon

What did I do?

Elio

You’re blonde and it repulses him.

Cassio

I’m not even going to entertain that with a response.

*Matteo has added Nico back to the chat*

Tucking my phone away, I shake my head. This family is fucking nuts.

ChapterTwenty-Eight

Ana

Iwakeup in a cold sweat, flying up into a seated position, gasping. My sudden jerking movement snaps Cassio out of his sleep, and he sits up to reach for me.

“Fuck, baby, are you okay? Are you in pain again?” he asks, immediately kicking our blankets away to look for blood.

“Nightmare,” I croak, trying to calm him. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fucking fine,” he disagrees, scrambling around the bed to my side. “You’re panting. Drink this.” A bottle of water is thrust in front of my face, cap already unscrewed.

Feeling the cool liquid ease the ache in my throat, I swallow a few mouthfuls. Sweat has perspired in the hair behind my neck, forcing the dark strands to cling to my skin. After a few deep breaths, I hand Cassio back the bottle and feel the content of my bad dream sink in. The images clarify but jumble around, unwelcome memories taking advantage of my weakened state.

“You haven’t had such a bad dream since the first night,” Cassio says, placing the back of his hand against my forehead. “You’re a little warm too, are you all right,forza?”

“Four people,” I mutter cryptically.

“What?”

“I’ve killed four people, I think.”

Cassio blinks. “Is that all?”

He’s so unfazed, and somehow that calms me.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “I’m just seeing flashes of things. A woman I don’t recognize bleeding from her head. A man with a shoe stuck in his eye, and someone foaming at the mouth like they’ve overdosed.”

“You killed a man with a high heel to the eye?”

“That’syour first question?” I ask incredulously.

Cassio’s eyes soften. “I don’t know how you want me to react, Ana. You seem distressed, but I’m not sure why. Are you afraid of knowing what you’ve done? Or how I’ll react to knowing what you’ve done?”

Emotion wells up in my throat, and my eyes start to sting. “I don’t know what happened… what if Cole helped me forget because they didn’t deserve it? What if something is wrong with me?”

The rugged scent of vanilla and wood surrounds me as Cassio pulls me into a hug, embracing me in bed. “Do you feel the craving to kill, Ana?”

“N-no,” I admit shakily. “Maybe toward the people who killed Cole and my mother. I don’t care about doing it myself though, I just want them to pay for what they’ve done.”

“Exactly,” he murmurs into my hair. Withdrawing to meet my eye, Cassio cups my face and smiles softly. “How can you think something is wrong with you? You don’t have a secret addiction to murder buried somewhere in that big brain of yours, love. I have no doubt you’ve killed for good reasons, and I wouldn’t look at you differently even if that weren’t true. You’re still my wife, no matter what you’ve done. I know who you are, and you aren’t a monster.”