“Lu murrisi per tia,” I said in Sicilian.I would die for you.
“If you stay,” she said, balling her hands into fists again, “you will. And so will I. It is too late for us.”
She disappeared into the orchard as the sun sank completely into the horizon. The volcano came even more alive in the darkness, spitting out fire, the air filled with the smell of smoke, ashes drifting in the wind.
11
Alcina
Idid not realize that I was cursing under my breath until my sister told me to stop.
“You told him to go!” She waved her hands at me.
“I did not tell him to go!” I waved my hands back. “I told him—I did not tell him toactuallygo.” Which he had. He had been gone for five days. His men went with him, but Nicodemo had stayed behind.
She leaned against the counter in what I called my candle kitchen. The hiddencasaon the property had a small kitchen for cooking, plus another one set in the back, which I used for my candles. No one knew about thecasabut my sister and Fabrizio’sfamiglia.
It had been Fabrizio’s grandfather’scasawhen he was still alive. He did not care for people, but only the company of his cats. The product of a past generation sat in the window, licking her paws, watching as my sister and I shouted at each other.
“What do you want, Alcina? Tell me. Tell me as if you are speaking to a wish maker.”
I turned from my sister, wiping a hand along my forehead. It was hot with the burners going and the summer air from outside. The smell of lemon and chocolate was pungent in the small space. Especially the citrus. I made my own oils for the candles.
“I want my life to bemine,” I said. “I want his life to behis.”
“That is a simple wish,” she said.
“How can it be?” I wiped my hand on a towel, staring out of the window. It was secluded in this area, nothing but trees and cats. “It is complicated. I am wanted for what I did to Junior, and I am to be married to a man who would start another war if he found out I have even been spending time with another man.It has been doomed from the start.” I waved a hand casually, but my eyes burned.
“You are right,” she said, and even though I could not see her, I knew she was nodding. “The two of you will start a war. On your side and his. It is good that he has gone. Let him marryRosa, and you marry Elmo—I mean,Eraldo. Everyone lives unhappily ever after.”
Even though it was the truth, and I needed that from her, it made me mad. “It might not beRosa,” I snapped.
My sister started to laugh. I whirled on her, a candle in my hand.
She lifted hers. “It does not matter her name, does it? I hit a soft spot.”
“Sì!I do not know how to make it go away. The jealousy.”
“It will not,” she said, all traces of humor gone from her face. “Because you love him, Alcina.”
“Love does not happen overnight!”
“Sì!It does. Every second of every day, lovehappens. It just moves at its own speed. Sometimes it comes as a speeding thunderbolt. Sometimes it moves at the speed of a lazy summer breeze. It does not matter how fast or how slow. All that matters is that it moves us.
“You will never know real love, Alcina,” she said, her voice taking on a pleading tone, “until you give yourself over to it. It does not matter if he marries Rosa, or if you marry Eraldo. What matters is that you give in to love. However this ends, you can always say you had today.”
“I do not have today.” I snatched a basket from the counter. “He is gone.”
She grabbed my arm, stopping me before I rushed out the door. I usually made the candles to clear my head, to create light in my life, but I needed air. My heart and eyes burned from the ache I could not escape. The internal had overflowed to the physical.
“Wars are started for much less,” she whispered to me, “than true love.”
* * *
I tooka hard step out of the door, landing at an awkward angle on the step. I fell forward, right into the arms of a man.Loscorpione.
“And we meet again this way,” he said, looking down at me.
