Nazzareno had married me, which twisted fate even more. A twist which I thought Luca found delicious.
My part in all of this: I had to leave to stop theludi.
We all knew how that went, and there we were.
Luca also had power over the actual battle. He’d selected swords, which wasn’t such a surprise since it was his weapon of choice.
“My grandfather felt it was romantic. Especially when theludiwas held over the love of a woman.”
“Do the women feel this way, or just the men?”
He grinned. “Depends on the woman.”
“Rosaria Caffi?”
“She would adore it.”
“Scarlett Fausti?”
He looked down at me and then quickly back up.
I went to get up, but he wouldn’t let me. “Was Brando involved in aludiin Scarlett’s honor?” How strange was it to speak that way? Using words like honor and romance—words that almost felt extinct in this day.
“She does not know, but yes.”
I didn’t know what was worse—knowing or not; being there or not.
“Anything else I should know?”
He grew quiet, and then cleared his throat. “It is something you must see—words will not do it justice. However, you must remember this. Theludiis, at its core, a play by fate, and we are the actors there to entertain the crowd.ZioLuca is the rule holder, the director, but as the play goes on, we act according to the twists of our footsteps, not scripts.”
“So…what you’re telling me is that a plot twist happens, and from that plot twist, the entire game can change.”
“Sì.”
It felt like this entire ordeal was going to be a trial by fire for me.
I cleared my throat. “Can you do something for me?”
He didn’t say anything, and I knew it was because he was waiting to see what that something was. He couldn’t automatically promise me, because if he did and I snuck indon’t do this, he would be breaking his word to me. I could tell he was struggling, though, not to automatically agree. His hands were balled into fists.
“On my signal,” I whispered even lower, “unleash hell for me.” It was a movie quote twisted with my own plea.
We both grew quiet after, then he kissed my temple and turned out the light, but we didn’t sleep.
FORTY-NINE
AVA
Before the eternallight dawned over Rome, we left for Florence.
I recognized the roads, even though it was dark out. Aristide drove, Beni in the passenger seat, Nazzareno and I in the back.
Each mile burned made it harder and harder to breathe, like internal emotional smoke was strangling my throat and lungs.
Nazzareno was quiet, his thoughts inward, but he constantly touched me.
It seemed like all the air in the universe had been sucked out, including in my lungs, when we pulled up to the gate leading into Luca’s walled city.
