I drag a hand through my hair and curse under my breath.
The rosary digs into my palm, small wooden beads biting deep until the sting centers me. Good. Pain is grounding. Pain reminds me I’m not Giovanni.Not yet.
But something is wrong.
I feel it—deep, low, primitive. A pressure lodged beneath my ribs. A burn in my throat I can’t swallow down. My body recognizes danger even if my brain hasn’t caught up.
I pace the length of my room, bare feet silent on the floor, shadows stretching long across the walls. The storm outside rattles the windows. Thunder rolls through the house.Still… nothing moves.
Too quiet.
“Fuck this.”
I crack my door open.
The hallway is empty—dim, still, with the silence that means everyone’s asleep… or someone should be here and isn’t.
I step out.Check the common room.Empty.A coffee mug sits on the table—cold, untouched.The back door: locked.Romeo’s room: closed.Dante’s: dark.Guido’s: quiet.
But hers—
Her door is cracked.
Just a sliver, but enough to show the soft glow of the lamp inside.
My pulse spikes, sharp and sudden.
“Pia?” I push the door open.
The room is still.Too still.
The bed is untouched.Blankets are smooth.Pillows in the exact, neat line I left them when I tucked her in earlier—before everything went to hell in the alley.
A cold sweep washes through me.
She’s gone.
Not stepped out for air.Not hiding to avoid me.Gone.
My stomach drops like a stone.
“She’s avoiding you,” I mutter—but the lie tastes weak and sour, and I know it.
She wouldn’t leave without a reason.She wouldn’t leave without a weapon.She wouldn’t leave without telling someone.
Unless she wasn’t leaving at all.
Unless she was going somewhere.
Somewhere she shouldn’t be.
I scan the room again.No bag missing. No clothes disturbed. No sign of a struggle.
But — the window latch is loose.A faint smudge stains the sill.Dirt sits near the bed that wasn’t there earlier.
Every instinct Giovanni carved into my bones—every violent lesson, every unspoken rule—flashes through me at once.
Danger.Movement.Tracks without sound.A ghost slipping into the shadows.
