Chapter 31
Capitolo Trentuno
Ravenna’s fingers dug into her towel as she stared across the room at Saturnino. Her wet hair dripped down her back, sending a shiver down the line of her spine. His presence overwhelmed her. He regarded her in a calculating manner; his expression held a familiar mocking quality.
Saturnino crossed to her wardrobe, opened the door, and pulled out her velvet dressing gown.
Wordlessly, he handed it to Ravenna, taking care not to touch her, and then turned away from her, toward the window.
She couldn’t keep herself from looking at his hands again.
The remnants of his fight with Marco were brutal.
Raw knuckles, small cuts, sore skin tinted blue.
Ravenna dropped the towel and hastily slid into the robe, tying the belt at her waist. She knotted it twice for good measure.
“I’m ready.”
He turned around and perused her garment slowly, the way it covered her chest, nipped in at her waist, and brushed the tops of her bare toes.
He slowly dragged his eyes up to meet hers.
His thorough study left her breathless. He had seen everything he needed to see, down to the way her fingers twisted the fabric.
It was impossible to keep herself from fidgeting nervously.
But then he averted his gaze, as if he couldn’t bear to look at her.
His words came out in a low mutter, harsh and grim. “You are lovely.”
It didn’t sound like a compliment, and his tone irked her. “You mean for a human.”
His face snapped back to hers. “No, because of it.”
Her lips parted in surprise and he drew closer.
He was angry with her, but he seemed to be even angrier with himself.
Ravenna felt its wild presence piercing the air between them.
Her mind raced—thought after thought, idea after idea.
Saturnino was here because he’d found her on that bridge, hovering over the corpse of their greatest ally.
How much could she reveal? What could she say to save her life?
He went for the jugular. “You lied to me about the message.”
“You lied to me,” Ravenna countered.
“I wasn’t lying when we made our bargain,” he said. “I haven’t told you everything, I’ve evaded some of your questions, but I have kept our terms.”
It really was a marvel, the way he could lie but still make it sound like the truth. Everything he had said contradicted what she’d heard out of his own mouth in the garden. Anger fizzled at her fingertips. For the first time in her life, she wanted to strike another person, and not in defense.
In sheer frustration.
“You haven’t kept your end,” Ravenna said.
He glowered at her. “How so?”
“I was to give you information, just enough for you to continue your own machinations in a war I want no part of.”
He slashed the air between them with a pale hand. “That’s what I’ve been doing.”
Ravenna marched up to him, poked a finger against his chest. He didn’t budge. “You’re lying to me again. I heard you!”
Saturnino took her finger into his cool palm, his fingers brushing her knuckles. Ravenna forced herself not to react, even as a warm feeling spread through her at his light touch.
“You heard me when?”
“I followed you out into the garden,” she said, “and heard your conversation with the others.” Despite his gentle caress, her voice rose in accusation. “You’ve been searching for my replacement this entire time.”
His lips twisted wryly. “Technically, not the entire time.”
She drew in a quick, irregular breath. “Technically! You have been— Will you stop that?”
Saturnino froze, looking momentarily bemused, as if he hadn’t been aware of what he’d been doing. His dark eyes flicked down. He was cradling her hand against his chest, thumb brushing the pad of her palm.
“You were never going to honor our agreement,” Ravenna said. “You have no right to be angry with me.”
Slowly, Saturnino lifted his gaze, jaw set. She inhaled sharply at the primitive anger in his expression. He yanked her against him, doubling her wrist behind her in a tight hold that made her gasp. It didn’t hurt, but it kept her exactly where he wanted her.
At his mercy.
His fingers were icy against the feverish warmth of her skin. She squirmed, but stilled when he lowered his head, his lips brushed against her temple. “I have every right.”
Ravenna tested his strength, pulling backward, but his hold was firm.
“Why were you on the bridge with Sforza?” he demanded.
She set her mouth to a mulish line. “Why would I tell the man who’s planning on replacing me?
” She pitched forward and stomped her foot hard onto his.
He let out a surprised grunt but didn’t release her.
Ravenna drew up her knee sharply, but he shifted away from her, then wrapped his other arm around her body, pulling her against him.
She struggled but couldn’t break free; her cheek was pressed against his chest, the soft cotton of his tunic.
“Ravenna, Ravenna, shhh,” Saturnino breathed against her temple. “I’ve been searching for a replacement to save your life. Someone else they can focus on and try to control.”
Ravenna scoffed, her eyes narrowing into slits.
Of all the things he could have said! He was trying to trick her, and she struggled anew.
Saturnino tightened his grip, but he caught the look on her face, her anger and disbelief, and his features softened.
But Ravenna watched as he ruthlessly drove it away.
Her intuition bellowed to every corner of her body: this immortal was grappling with a very real human emotion.
And he hated it.
Abruptly he released her, and she stumbled back.
“It’s true,” he said. “Whether you believe it or not.”
Her lips parted, a strange fluttering of hope taking flight within her. “Is it?”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Courtesy of the terms of our bargain, of course.”
“Of course,” Ravenna muttered.
They stared at each other, breathing hard. Frustration lanced her, sharp and biting. They were getting nowhere. He might have been telling the truth, but every time he let her see a glimpse of the man underneath his cool facade, he drew away from her, snapping at her like a feral creature.
Ravenna closed her eyes to settle the rioting emotions flooding her.
By the time she opened them again, she had come to a decision.
They would get nowhere if one of them didn’t bend.
“I only received the message recently, and I was planning on sharing it with you during the banquet. But then I heard what you said, and so I panicked and did exactly what the pope wanted me to do.”
“Which was?” he asked softly.
“To lure Sforza out to the old bridge at midnight.” Ravenna paused. She had to be so, so careful. Above anything else, she couldn’t set Saturnino after her brother. “I wasn’t given a reason for the meeting; I assumed the pope would resort to blackmail in order to control Sforza.”
“But that’s not what happened,” Saturnino said flatly.
She shook her head. “He was shot and killed.”
“By your brother.”
The air rippled between them, taut and consuming, as if unleashed by a furious tempest seeking annihilation.
“Saturnino,” Ravenna pleaded. “I will not speak of him with you.”
“He’s a menace,” Saturnino said, but instead of sounding angry, he’d gentled his tone. “Dangerous to me and the others, but especially to you.”
“No, he’s grieving, he’s recovering from what the Med—” Ravenna broke off. It was pointless to argue this point. The Luni and Medici families had a partnership that seemed unbreakable. She would never be able to come between them.
“Finish your thought.” He drew closer to her, slowly, as if he were expecting her to run from him. “I’m listening.”
“We lost friends, family. They put Antonio in a cage, scheduled his execution. I’ve been angry, too. I wanted…”
His voice was a whisper against her skin. “Revenge?”
“Maybe at the start,” she said.
Saturnino drew closer. A single step. “And now?”
“That depends,” she said.
He stilled. “On?”
“Will you unleash that war machine on Volterra?” Ravenna took a step toward him when he blinked at her in surprise. “I told you. I heard everything.”
“Not everything,” he countered.
She scoffed. “Enough to—”
“—I told Lorenzo I would not support him using the machine on Volterra.”
Her voice broke off.
“Tell me what it is you want,” he said. “Please.”
“I want to get me and my brother out of this war alive,” Ravenna said softly.
“Beyond that. What do you want?”
She paused, unsure. An earlier version of herself would have said that she wanted to return home and manage the inn for her parents.
But she did want something else. A long-held secret wish.
Saying it out loud felt scary, and reckless.
Incredibly vulnerable. Ravenna licked her lips, pushed through her hesitation.
“I want to have my own studio where I can sculpt.”
“You ought to have one.” He took another step closer. “Anything else?”
For a heart-stopping moment, Ravenna almost told him the truth.
The messy, confusing, exasperating truth.
How he had snuck under her skin, tormented her with glimpses of his heart, his humanity.
A softness he kept ruthlessly hidden. But she knew it was there.
“Is our bargain the only reason why you want to save my life?”
Saturnino took another step closer and stared down at her upturned face. They were inches apart now. “Why aren’t you afraid of me?”
“I’m terrified of you,” she whispered. If she were brave enough, she would elaborate, but she fell silent.
She had already revealed far too much. Tension curled around them, embracing them both.
There was no escaping it. Ravenna waited for him to use her fear, her feelings, as a weapon to slice her through.
But his next words weren’t what she was expecting.