“Stop this,” Alistair says softly. “You’re mistaking your issues for his.”
“Who is?” Luca demands. “I don’t even know what’s going on.”
Alistair sighs. “You assumed Ciprian didn’t want Gideon to know about your basilisk because he was ashamed of you. I would be shocked if that thought ever crossed hismind.”
My shoulders droop. Alistair gets it. He didn’t assume the worst of me.
“And you,Casanell,are more hung up on your last name than anyone else. Luca has never cared about that—he was only upset because you lied to him about it.”
I frown. I’m not hung up—that’s not, ugh. He’s wrong; he just doesn’t realize it.
Luca’s eyebrows shoot up. “What is this to you, Ciprian?”
What is this to me?I squeeze the side of the door until my knuckles ache and slowly meet his eyes. “It’s my sweetest dream turning into my worst nightmare—the beginning of the end I’ll never get over. Don’t you see? I’ll keep trying to be what you need, but I’ll be too much and not enough all at once, and you’ll get tired of it. One day, I’ll wake up and all of you will be gone, returning to your lives and forgetting all about the time you fucked around with an enclave heir.”
“Fucked around with an enclave heir? T-that’s really what you think?” Luca’s voice cracks. “Ali, can you give us a minute?”
Alistair backs away and gets swallowed up by the shadows.
Luca peels my fingers off the door and grabs my wrist. “This isn’t temporary for me, Ciprian. It’s... Shit, I need air, but I don’t think I can let you go. Will you come with me?”
I follow him without fighting, my mind too busy replaying his words to do anything else. My tongue is tied; my breathing is choppy; and my heartbeat is louder than our combined footsteps.
The front door opens and closes behind us.
Cool air slaps my cheeks, and I suck in the chilled oxygen greedily.
The moon is high in the sky; its reflection clear and unbroken on the surface of the courtyard fountain. It’s waxing or waning, or whatever space scientists call the skinny, cunty phase. Curling around the stars, the silver crescent stares down at us, demanding entertainment.
I guess Luca and I are here to deliver.
“Where’s the entrance to the maze?”
I blink, trying to focus on reality instead of the elaborate anthropomorphized celestial drama playing out in my head.
“Seriously, Ciprian, how do we get in?” Luca demands. “If you don’t tell me, I’m going to plow through the side.”
That gets my attention. Mom would be pissed if we damaged her maze and launch an investigation that would rival the Spanish Inquisition in scope, breadth, and barbarity.
“It’s right there,” I mutter, pointing at the shadowed gap in the foliage.
Luca grunts and tugs me through the opening. He makes three turns, seemingly at random, before reaching a dead end and whirling to face me. “We’re going to talk now, okay?”
I raise one eyebrow.How am I supposed to know if it’s okay?I don’t have a clue what he’s going to say. “Are you sure you didn’t bring me here to kill me?”
“No jokes,” Luca hisses, raking his fingers through his hair. “I mean it, Ciprian. You and me? We’re going to speak plainly, and neither of us is leaving this maze until we understand each other. I’m serious, if I catch even a whiff of miscommunication...”
“You can smell miscommunication? That’s a neat?—”
Luca covers my mouth. “No, but I can smell bullshit, and I’m fucking tired of it.” His hazel eyes creep dangerously close to yellow before his shoulders dip. “Aren’t you?”
A shiver runs down my spine.He has no idea.
Luca drops his hand, and his Adam’s apple bobs. “I’m in love with you, Ciprian. Do you love me, too?”
Air evacuates my lungs in a whoosh.
I gulp, and the moon winks at me over Luca’s shoulder.
