This was the wish Margherita had asked of my father. However, she did not ask this on her death bed. She had asked this of him as a favor. It was no ordinary favor. My grandmother, Grazia, had wished for the fights we held in the colosseum to cease, and even that was a feat that many in our family still held ill feelings toward. My father reinstated the “games,” but his wife’s wish was almost as powerful as asking our blood to change its makeup.
I did not know how I felt about this. It was our way, and it spoke not only to the ruthless in our blood, but the romantic.
My father released hiscugino, and even though the man kept to his feet, it was clear to see he would not forget the grip that had him in a death hold. His eyes watered.
“This meeting has come to an end,” my father announced, fixing his suit. “However, the words we have spoken in this room have taken root, and what is to come will forever change our family as we know it—either way.” My father looked me in the eye.
Perhaps he was speaking to Paolo, using him as a ploy in his plan to obtain the wish his wife had asked of him. However, his ending note was aimed at me.
What is to come will forever change our family as we know it—either way.
I realized then that, if the rules of our family changed, when it was my time to wear the crown, if a man demanded to challenge me for it, it would not be by sword. Perhaps any challenges that involved blood would cease to exist ever again.
I fixed my suit, and then the floor seemed to rock underneath my feet when the first round of gun fire exploded outside of the window.
Chapter 40
There Is Another War
Aria Amora
My head whipped in the direction ofNel Cielo, and a gust of wind whipped my hair across my face. By the time I was able to push the hair out of my eyes, it seemed as if all hell had broken loose on our property.
Gunfire erupted close toNel Cielo, and it was beginning to pop up all over the place.
“We must getSignoraFausti to safety!” Ermanno shouted, and from underneath his shirt, he pulled out a small pistol. He turned Uncle Tito around so fast in the wheelchair, Uncle Tito had to grab onto the handles, his frail knuckles turning white.
Thandie was already on it. She had her gun in position, and she was standing next to me. I couldn’t hear anything from her earpiece, but judging by how fast her eyes darted around, she understood what was going on.
“We’re being attacked,” she whispered in a no-nonsense voice. “We need to get to the emergency exit routes—Ari?—!”
She caught me before I could get too far. I had taken off to find my husband before she could even finish her sentence. All the other women had stayed behind inNel Cieloto enjoy coffee while I took my walk with Uncle Tito to give him the news about the baby and her name. He had said his wife would’ve been sopleased, which in turn made him seem so pleased. I hadn’t seen warmth in his cheeks since Aunt Lola had passed, and he had it.
Uncle Tito said our baby was meant to be, and she was a child that was going to fulfill so many dreams. Even though the baby was not his and Lola’s, she had the name they would have given a daughter, and she carried the Fausti blood, which meant his Lola would live on in her.
It was the most I’d heard him speak since Aunt Lola passed, and my blood was still warm because of it, but the ice cold of the moment seized me.
“I—” I barely got out “—I have to get to my husband!”
“Your husband is safe.” Thandie squeezed my hand. “If something happens to you, understandably, the world won’t be—not until he burns it down, himself in it. Now. Listen to me. We must move.”
My eyes glanced in the distance, where gunfire seemed the most concentrated. We had escape routes inNel Cielo. I imagined all the women fleeing, their men getting them to safety. My husband, though, would come looking for me.
“Rocco will?—”
Thandie all but picked me up to get me moving, her body like glue on mine. “Trust me, Aria,” she said in a voice that commanded me to do so.
I realized in that moment that I would never trust another person the way I trusted my husband. He was my world, and I knew he’d burn his down to protect me, to be with me. As much as I loved and respected Thandie, I had faith in the above, and I trusted one person completely—my husband.
Ermanno held a gun, almost flying over the tarmac, turning toward a more heavily wooded area to get Uncle Tito out. Uncle Tito was too old and frail to do anything but barely hang on. We were following Ermanno.
“Trust only goes so far with me, Thandie,” I whispered as we ran.
She heard me. Maybe the wind had taken my voice and carried it to her ears.
She nodded. “Good. In this life, you should feel that way.”
We had an understanding, then.
