Uncle Tito cleared his throat. “I told Angela not to worry. All was okay with the alarm.” He pointed his bag towards the door and then left without another word.
“Look at me, Alcina,”lo scorpionesaid once more.
I refused to.
“All right,” he said. He turned and put his fist through the wall before he left me alone in the kitchen.
His violence seemed to echo in the quiet while my rage seemed to scream over it.
I listened for him for a while before I turned and opened the drawer again, taking out a knife. I stuck it behind my back, moving through the house as quietly as possible.
“Alcina.”
Mamma’svoice stopped me. Anna and Fabrizio had gone back to Italy, butmammarefused to leave.
“Go back to sleep,” I whispered.
“What is going on?” she said, her voice taking on a demanding tone.
“A little argument,” I said. “We will work it out.”
“Alcina,” she said as I moved further away from her. “Do not do something you will regret!”
I smiled in the darkness. If anyone regretted anything, it would be him. That fucking scorpion.
He had taken a shower and was in bed. He had lit the candles in the fireplace, and the light from the flames haloed his naked body. He could sleep even if the world was ending.
I tucked the knife in the bathroom drawer. I undressed, catching sight of the bruises on my skin before I jumped into the shower. I did not dress after and left my hair wet. I took out the knife and then walked into our room. I slipped in beside him and then moved on top of him.
His eyes slowly opened.
I pressed the knife to his throat a little harder, watching as the blood bubbled. “I told you,” I said, my voice coming out hard, but with a slight tremble I could not control. “I told you I would kill you.”
He stuck his neck up some. “I told you I would allow you to.” He moved my hand down further, to his heart. “Do it, Alcina. If you’re going to kill me, do it. Fucking do it.” He pressed it harder against him, and more blood started to run from his skin.
“You killed my trust,” I whispered. “My faith in you.”
“No,” he said, reaching up to tuck his hand deep into my hair. His thumb stroked my chin. “I swear on Eleonora.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why would you allow me to kill you then?”
“I’m killing you anyway,” he said. “My life. Me. I’d rather die than see you this way.”
My hand started to tremble, and something rushed through me, something so powerful that a sob rocked me to my core, even though I did not shed a tear.
What was wrong with me? I blinked at him, trying to bring him into focus, my mind sharpening. The poisons from theviperestarted to recede, and I realized, the only damage was inside of me.
Before I could move, Corrado flipped me on my back. Instead of letting the knife go, I went to catch it before it slipped out of my hand. It cut my palm. He took it from me, throwing it toward the fireplace, and then pinned me down beneath him.
His hands were like steel bars around my wrists. “I should have known,” he said, his voice sharp. “Your eyes don’t belong to an angel. They belong to a witch. You put me under a fucking spell.”
I tried to push against his hold, but he was too strong. “Go to hell,” I hissed at him, matching his fury with my own.
He let one of my wrists go, his hand reaching around my throat, the pressure worse than it was the night in Como. “What did I tell you?” he whispered. “I would killyou.”
“I have always been faithful to you,” I barely got out.
“Have you?” He tilted his head. Blood rushed from the cuts. His heart must have been pumping faster. “I don’t know what the fuck was said in that room between you and Rocco Fausti.”
