Chapter 35
35
Max
She didn’t have a chance for the volcanic flood of anger to erupt before everything happened at once.
One moment the figure was coming at her with – was it a gun? It looked wrong – and the next, it was twisted behind their back as they locked together with Grey in a deadly dance.
Max grabbed the gun-like thing. She tried to help but the choreography was designed for two.
He’d saved her. He’d ...
WHACK . Max swung the strange gun to the back of the hood. The fighter went still, then crumpled to the ground, almost falling on her heels.
Grey ripped off the hood and they both stared at the man’s face, their heavy breathing out of sync. He was white, with a thin mouth like a scar and a feathery moustache.
He was achingly familiar but Max couldn’t place him in the chaotic fury of her mind. She was a magnet with a dysfunctional pole, half of her ripping away from Grey, who’d just pulled out her heart and severed the arteries before the attacker jumped her, and the other half pulling towards him – to protect him, to close her eyes against his chest and pretend none of this was happening. Her pull to him was a nervous tic she had to grow out of; it could very well get her killed tonight.
The kid. The one I let go? I pushed him.
She couldn’t reconcile the two Greys. The one who’d confessed to killing a boy to save Luca Barbarani, and the one who’d jumped between her and a gun a mere two seconds after he’d said there was nothing between them.
‘Who is he?’ She could hear in Grey’s voice that the man was familiar to him too.
But Max didn’t have time to answer. ‘Frankie! Behind you!’
The youngest Barbarani had torn across the newly illuminated dining room floor, straight for Luca, who had been trying to pull Ariana La Marca towards the arched door. Forrest was yelling at them both.
But someone had followed Frankie, someone in another hood like the skinny moustache guy.
No. No. No.
‘Max!’
She ignored Grey’s yells – all she could think about was Frankie’s earnest face when she’d admonished her sister about the silkworms. She was so young. Too young to have lost her father. To have seen him die like that. Too young to die herself.
Max ploughed between Frankie and the hooded figure on her heels. But someone else got there first.
She heard a hollow sound like a whistle without the shriek as Vittoria Barbarani threw herself in front of her daughter.
At first, Max thought Vittoria hadn’t been hit. She braced herself for the sound to come again. But the figure had disappeared into the chaos of the night. Max thought she saw something under his hood as he darted away – something – but no, it couldn’t have been ...
Vittoria had slumped backwards, Frankie and Grey holding her under each arm.
‘No.’ Frankie shook her head. ‘ No .’
‘Mum.’ Luca’s eyes were bright. ‘Mum, please. Don’t.’
‘Let’s go.’ That was Forrest, tugging at Ariana. His face was twisted down at Vittoria in a mix of fear and mild fascination.
‘Where’s she hit?’ Max splayed her hands across Vittoria’s body, searching for the stickiness of blood, for a wound she could plug. What she found made no sense.
‘Blow dart,’ Grey said, kneeling beside her, his fingers on the thin silver feathers sticking out of Vittoria’s thin chest.
‘Stay with us, Vittoria,’ Max said. ‘Stay awake.’
‘They hit the other guards with those,’ a small voice said. Max couldn’t place it, but when she looked up, she realised it was Ariana who’d spoken.
‘And how do you know that?’ Grey snapped. ‘Because your dad told you that’s what he was planning on doing?’
‘My dad didn’t do this.’ Ariana looked down at Vittoria with wet eyes.
‘Believable,’ Grey said.
Forrest stepped towards him. ‘Watch your mouth, Hawke.’
‘Get him out of here,’ Grey said – to who, Max wasn’t sure. ‘Or I’ll kill him myself.’
‘Let’s go,’ Ariana said through the thickness of tears. Did she believe Grey’s threat because she’d seen him throw the boy off the balcony at that party? Was Max the only one here who had been so blind to the truth about the Barbaranis’ Fixer?
Vittoria shuddered, and she clasped at the dart.
Grey tried to calm her. ‘Don’t take it out, just relax, signora. Everything’s going to be fine.’
You liar , Max thought.
‘Mum.’ Luca squeezed Vittoria’s hand, and Frankie took the other one. ‘Please.’
Vittoria’s eyes swept over her children before resting on Grey. ‘Listen,’ she croaked, ‘you’re not ...’ She coughed.
Max swept the hair away from her eyes; Vittoria’s skin was clammy with sweat. She was still looking at Grey.
‘Not who you ... think ...’ Her eyes flickered.
‘Mum,’ Luca choked out.
Ariana and Forrest were still there – frozen in the terrible ice of a moment they weren’t supposed to sink with.
Vittoria closed her eyes.
‘ NO! ’ Frankie screamed. ‘No! No! NO!’
Max couldn’t help it – in the blackness of her thoughts after what she’d just seen, after what Grey had said – all she could think was:
Two down . Four to go.