Chapter 50 Cosimo
Cosimo
There was no anchor this time. The world had gone out of control, time running amok like spinning hands on a cartoon clock. Dante covered the courtyard in seconds, falling to his knees and gathering his brother from the dirt, pulling him from Fede’s anguished embrace.
Cosimo looked on, frozen by what he was seeing.
Death was always brazen, but love … love could hide its face.
It could hide behind stone walls and smiles of friendship; it could go undetected, its radiance uncatchable and elusive – but once revealed, it glowed like a pearl in the moonlight.
And Cosimo saw it now; he understood at last the missing piece to his elusive brother as tears rolled down Fede’s cheeks and Dante railed at the heavens.
Rafaella stood beside him, trembling too as the lies fell away and the carcass of her marriage was revealed.
The world as they knew it had come to another end.
It felt as if the sky was splitting open, raining fire, flooding rivers of blood.
Cosimo could feel Dante’s roars vibrating under his feet.
The beast had been let out at last, as everyone had always somehow known it would be …
but it was as his curses began to quieten and subside that Cosimo’s fear began to rise.
The sky seemed to contract in an atmospheric spasm above their heads as Dante carefully laid his brother’s body back on the ground.
‘Dante,’ Francesco said, his voice ragged and thin with terror as he felt it too. ‘It was an accident. There was nothing I could do—’ He staggered backwards as, slowly, Dante reached for something in his sock and rose to stand.
‘… You killed my brother,’ Dante snarled, and Cosimo saw the quick flick of his wrist. A switchblade protruded from his fist like a solitary finger.
‘Dante …’ Fede said appeasingly, holding his hands up too. He was still on the ground, looking up, and Cosimo realized to his horror that it was Fede to whom Dante was talking, not Francesco.
‘It’s because of you he’s dead,’ Dante said in a low voice.
Fede shook his head, feet scrabbling as he tried to get up. ‘No—’
‘Yes! You destroyed him!’
‘Dante, wait!’ Rafaella began running towards them.
‘Rafa, no!’ Cosimo yelled, chasing after her too, but his eyes were on his brother, pleading for his life.
‘I cared about him!’ Fede cried, holding his bound hands out defensively. Somehow he had got to his feet but he was weakened by weeks of captivity, with no way to fight back. There was no chance he could outrun Dante like this. And Dante knew it. ‘Don’t do this!’
‘Please, no!’ Rafaella screamed, as Dante’s arm swung like a comet, the flash of its blade the star’s tail. She was just metres away from them—
She never saw the bullet.