A number of emotions were broiling inside Ginevra. Shock. Betrayal. Confusion.
"So, the representative, correspondent, and doctor. You've just been playing up these facades."
Boni's cheeks flared up a bright red as he stared at the ground.
"Ginevra," Luca came forward. "We do do those things as well. At least…don't be mad at Boni. He is a doctor. He doesn't even enjoy doing this.
"Enjoy doing this?"
"That's not what I meant –"
Nicco spoke up."It wasn't our intention to mislead you. We simply didn't want to involve you. We would never do anything to hurt you, Ginevra."
"Taren said it was –" Luca stopped mid-sentence as his eyes fell on Taren.
He was slumped against the side against the tree, his eyes two slits, his face pale as a dead man's. Luca and Boni were by Taren's side in a flash.
Luca turned to Boni. "Do you think you can pull these out?"
Boni nodded and started directing Luca on how to position him. "Ginevra, come with me." Nicco stood between her and Taren. Ginevra looked past Nicco to the lifeless Taren on the ground.
"I can help."
Boni had one hand pressed against Taren's shirt, the other wrapped around the base of the arrow.
Ginevra took another step forward. "Let me help."
Luca looked over his shoulder. "Ginevra, Nicco, leave now."
Nicco took another reluctant step towards her. "Ginev—"
They were doing the same thing, again. Pushing her away. She came closer.
"Nicco!" Luca's voice was more insistent, urgent.
Ginevra tried to side step around Nicco, he blocked her way, but a moment too late. She slammed into him. Nicco's eyes widened into two saucers. He froze. His shoulders heaved, and then he started coughing.
Boni and Luca both looked up.
Luca turned to Boni. "He's got an allergic reaction.
"Where is the medicine?"
Nicco's neck and face were flaming up red as he continued to choke.
"He'll die if we don't take him back now."
"I can take care of the rest. Go with Nicco."
Luca gave a curt nod and was at Ginevra's side the next moment.
"Nicco is allergic to women. A touch can be fatal."
They sat in a thick, deep silence in the drawing room. Nicco was leaning back against the sofa, a bag of ice on his head, looking half-alive. Luca was pacing the room. He kept making eyes at Nicco, who responded in kind.
You say something.
No, you start. I'm the one with the ice bag here.
When it came down to it, apologizing was the hardest thing they'd ever had to do. It meant admitting they had been wrong.
Ginevra was in another armchair, neck bandaged, and a book spread open on her lap that hadn't had a single page flipped since it had been opened half an hour ago. One half of her was seething in anger at Taren, the other more compassionate.
Taren took two arrows for me to save my life. But this wouldn't have happened if he had just told me everything from the start. He deserves to be in that much pain. Although, he did get shot because of me. Then again, if he had just told me the truth, none of this would have happened…
Luca and Nicco started to say her name together. "Gi –"
At that same exact moment, Boni appeared in the doorway, carrying a silver platter with a medicine bottle and some water.
Ginevra leaped up from the sofa and grabbed the platter from him. "I'll take it."
"Mix two spoonfuls into the water!" Boni called out to Ginevra as she hurried through the door.
****
Ginevra knocked on Taren's bedroom, and when nobody answered, she quietly went in.
She expected to find Taren asleep, but as she drew closer, she saw that the bed was empty.
Her gaze went to the shifting curtains and she saw that the window had been cracked open. Placing the platter on the side table, she walked over to the window and looked out. The roof was flat, with only a slight downward slope. Before she could overthink it, Ginevra stepped over the ledge into the dark.
The roof was more slippery than she had expected. She bent over as she struggled to find purchase on the tiles.
"Taren?" A call of an owl responded. "Taren, are you out here?"
The tiles were slipping under her feet. One slid out and fell into the abysmal darkness below. Something shifted in the dark and then Taren was in front of her, grabbing her arm.
"What are you doing out here?" They spoke in unison.
"You're out of bed?"
"It has healed." His eyes strayed to her neck. "How are you?"
"Boni gave me a balm. It was just some bruising. How can you already be healed?"
Ginevra started to lean forward and Taren grabbed her other wrist. They were suddenly so close that Ginevra could feel his breath.
"It runs in the Maldoni family."
Taren's thumb grazed Ginevra's wrist.
Suddenly, she was angry again. She didn't even understand why. Maybe it was because she had allowed herself to show him that she cared enough to come. That she had spent the past hour worrying about him, when he had been fine after all. She remembered that she was supposed to be mad at him, that he was the one who had lied to her, and that none of this would have happened if he had been open and honest with her from the start. She wasn't even sure if she was more angry at herself or Taren.
"I thought you were on the brink of death."
The corners of Taren's lips lifted slightly. "You think me selfish, self-absorbed, and full of myself."
Ginevra looked down at the tiles as she sought to regain some balance. She was frustrated that she needed his support.
"You are selfish, conceited, reckless, and entirely wrong about everything. But I've seen enough death in my life."
Something shifted in Taren's eyes – fleeting, but enough to change his countenance.
Ginevra continued. "And if you died, there wouldn't be anyone to protect the Scaraveggi would there? No one to pay my family's bills…"
"Ginevra, stop moving –"
Taren didn't finish his sentence because one of the tiles loosened under them and Ginevra fell forward into Taren, who instinctively grabbed her, and with a few, deft steps, had pulled her to the pinnacle of the roof just as an entire slab of tiles fell away under their feet. He held her hand as she sat, and then joined her side.
They looked out at the dark expanse of fields that surrounded the estate. The glimmering lights of the distant villages speckled the darkness.
Taren spoke. "And no curse to worry about…"
Ginevra raised an eyebrow. "That's true, there's really benefits to each."
Ginevra stole a glance at Taren just as he looked over at her. Smiles that were not quite smiles pulled at the corners of their mouths. Something brimmed in the corners of their eyes. And in that moment which was hardly a moment, a little bit of that great and impenetrable wall that existed between them seemed to have melted away.
Ginevra glanced away first. She was struggling against that something which was causing the corners of her lips to quiver.
"Besides, if I wanted you dead, I could just push you off the edge."
"Do you want to try?" There was something new in Taren's tone – something in the undercurrent had changed.
She shrugged. "It's not as fun without the element of surprise."
And then, Taren chuckled. Ginevra was so surprised that she turned to look at him.
His smile reached all the way up to his eyes, crinkling the edges and entirely altering their expression. Their hard, impassive look was replaced by something softer. In fact, he almost looked like an entirely different person.
"That sounds just like something my father would say."
But then his grin dropped. She thought she saw something of regret in his eyes, perhaps even painful in the way his eyebrows momentarily came together. She wondered at the sort of relationship he had had with his father.
Ginevra looked down at her lap.
"Thank you. For saving my life last night."
A long silent moment stretched between them.
"I should have told you about them earlier. But.."
Ginevra glanced up at him. His words came out faster.
"You were already so suspicious and wary of us all. And the way you reacted when I told you about the curse…I didn't want you to feel that way towards the rest of them. I wanted you to feel that you could have people you could trust."
"The truth is, Taren – you just can't stand not being in control. The idea of your fate in someone's else's hands terrifies you."
"Wouldn't it scare you too?" Taren leaned in, and Ginevra held her breath. He searches her eyes, their faces mere inches apart, fingers resting on the tiles a hair breadth away.
The familiar smell of winter air tinged with a bittersweet scent overpowered her nose.
Ginevra swallowed. "It would. But I admit it when I need help."
"Then, Ginevra Francesca di Maldoni, will you help me break this curse?"
"I am contractually bound to it now. We exchanged our vows at the ceremony."
She tilted her chin up with a new conviction. She hardly knew where it had come from; it had sprung up on her suddenly, unexpectedly.
"So yes, I will."
I am terrified. I have no idea what to expect playing with such strong forces of energy. And it will either free us both, or be the cause of our own destruction.
She watched as a few more tiles broke off the edge of the roof, disappearing into the dark void below.