My eyes pop open wide and I turn to Lucia, but she’s already onher phone. When she’s done, she slides it in her pocket, her eyes shrewdly on the guards. Slowly they lay down over the table, an involuntary shiver running through their bodies.
I cover my mouth with my hands.
“Hemlock,” Lucia whispers drily. “It grows on the island. They lay down. They get up. They don’t know why.” She shrugs.
My eyes pop open wide. “Hemlock?”
She stamps her foot down hard on mine and the word turns into a shriek.
“It does not affect the brain or the ears,” she hisses. “Stai zitta.”
Shut up?She poisoned these men—no, no. She gotmeto poison these men with my food, and I’m not supposed to say anything?
“It won’t hurt them. Not if Dr. Rossi gets here on time.”
I clear my throat, panic ripping through me. “You called him.”
“I text him. He knows what to do.”
I try to stop myself from shaking, staring at this woman. “You’ve, uh, you’ve done this before?”
“I work for the Demonios a long time.” Her voice lacks inflection and it’s clear she’s feeling none of the panic that I’m trying to shove down. “Dr. Rossi, he come by plane. You take his plane and you go.”
Is she trying to help me or trying to get rid of me? There is not a single tell on this woman, and I suspect that the answer is yes to both.
“Why are you helping me?” I ask.
“I do no such thing. I call the doctor for food poisoning. That is all.” She shrugs. “If it helps you, it helps you.”
A warmth runs through me, stilling the cold chills making me shake.
“Lucia—”
“Don’t.” She waves a hand, already turning back to her counter. “Go to the airstrip. Dr. Rossi will arrive soon.”
I cross the kitchen and wrap my arms around her from behind. She goes rigid immediately, a sound escaping her that is half protest, half surprise.
Then she squeezes my forearms once, hard, and shoos me off with both hands.
“Vai, vai.”Go. She doesn’t make eye contact. “Don’t make a scene.”
I laugh softly and head toward the door, pausing in the doorway to look back.
“Thank you,” I say, and when she exhales hard in disgust, I laugh and make my way out as fast as I can.
22
VIN
Waking up feels like coming back from the dead. One minute there’s nothing, and the next, the ceiling materializes above me shadowed by the grey light coming through the curtains.
I lie there for a long time and do nothing but breathe.
The sheets smell like her. I close my eyes and drag the pillow toward me, press my face into it. No, not the sheets.Ismell like her. Groaning, I throw the pillow across the room and stretch, sore.
One of my housemaids, Marta, appears in the doorway like she was waiting for me to wake up, carrying a pressed suit on a hanger.
“Miss Sophia said to have this pressed and ready for you for thefuneral.”
