Tella buried her head back against Danteโs warm chest. She was so tired. Tired of games and lies, and broken hearts, and tired of trying to rescue herself and her mother. She wanted to forget about it all. Maybe she closed her eyes and slept, or maybe it only took him a moment to carry her far away from the park. It seemed very little time had passed before she heard his low voice again.
โAre you all right to walk?โ
Tella managed a nod and Dante smoothly set her down in front of a narrow set of crumbling steps overrun by moss and laced with forsaken spiderwebs. Ruins so abandoned not even the insects had stayed. But they seemed to be lit by the stars. Tella looked up and saw that they were on the edge of the sparkling white heart Legend had placed in the sky.
โWhat is this place?โ Tella asked.
โValendaโs older myths claim this belonged to a governor who ruled long before the Meridian Empire began, back when the Fates reigned on earth.โ Dante guided her up the steps into the skeleton of an old estate. Tellaโs nana Anna always said a personโs beauty was determined by their bones. If that were true, the bones of this manor made Tella think it must have been resplendent once.
The crumbling pillars and overgrown courtyards spoke of ancient wealth, while the cracked statues and ghosts of painted ceilings hinted at disappearing art. Only one relic seemed to have avoided the deadly caress of time. A fountain in the central courtyard, shaped in the form of a woman
dressed similar to Tella, who held a pitcher that poured an endless stream of currant-red water into the pool surrounding her ankles.
โThey say this place is cursed,โ Dante continued. โDuring one of the governorโs many parties, his wife discovered that he planned to poison her so that he could wed his younger mistress. Rather than drinking the poison, the wife added three drops of her own blood and poured it out as an offering to one of the Fatesโthe Poisoner. She vowed to live the rest of her life in service as one of his handmaidens, as long as he granted her one request.โ
โWhat did she ask for?โ
โThe wife didnโt know who her husbandโs mistress was, but she knew the woman was at the party. So she wished that her husband would only remember his wife.โ
โWhat happened then?โ
โThe Poisoner granted her wish. After drinking a poisonous glass of wine, her husband forgot every person heโd ever met, except for his wife.โ Dante shot a wry glace at the statue pouring her bottomless pitcher.
โIs that supposed to be the wife?โ Tella asked.
โIf you believe the story.โ Dante sat on the edge of the fountain, letting the red water trickle behind him in soft musical notes as he continued with the tale. โThe wife wasnโt pleased. The Poisoner had erased everyone from her husbandโs memory. A governor isnโt useful if he only knows one person. Once word of his condition escaped he was stripped of his position, and soon they were to be forced out of their house. So, even though her first bargain had not ended well, the wife spilled more blood and called on the Poisoner again, asking him to restore her husbandโs memory. He warned her if they did this, her husband would try to kill her once more. So the woman promised to serve the Poisoner in the afterlife as well, and asked for another favor. She requested the power to make her husband forget just one person. The Poisoner agreed, but again he cautioned that there would be consequences. The woman didnโt careโas long as she kept her home and her title.โ
โI think I know where this is going,โ Tella said.
โDo you want to try finishing the story?โ Dante offered.
โNo.โ Tella sat down beside him on the edge of the fountain. โYou have a voice for telling stories.โ
โOf course I do.โ
โYou are so full of yourself.โ She leaned closer to elbow him in the ribs, but Dante took the opportunity to slide his heavy arm around her waist and tuck her into his side.
He was so warm, a human shield sheltering her from the rest of the world. She allowed herself to press closer to him as he said, โThe Poisoner restored her husbandโs memory. Then the Fate told the wife that if she took a pitcher of water and poured it out into the pool in the center of the courtyard, it would turn to wine that would have the power to make her husband forget the other woman he loved. The wife obeyed, but as she poured out the water and it turned to wine, she also began to transform, shifting into stone while her husband watched from the balcony above. Heโd only had his memory back a few short hours, but it had been long enough for him to call on a Fate as well.โ
โSo he had her turned to stone?โ Tella asked.
โHe wished her dead, but the Poisoner had promised sheโd keep her home and her title, and the Fates always keep their bargains.โ
Both Tella and Dante shifted to watch the frozen woman once more. She didnโt look furious, as Tella would have suspected, or as if she were attempting to fight the spell. Instead, she almost appeared to relish it, tipping out her cursed wine the way another person might spill a dare or a challenge.
โItโs believed that anyone who drinks from this fountain can forget whatever they choose,โ Dante said.
โAnd I thought you were telling me the story to help me forget.โ โDid it do that?โ he asked.
โFor a minute,โ she admitted. But sadly that moment had already passed. Tella dipped her finger into the fountain, coating it in swirls of bitter burgundy. It would have been so easy to put her finger in her mouth, close her eyes, and erase what her mother had said and done.
But even if she believed Danteโs tragic myth, she wasnโt sure she really wanted to forget. Tella dropped her hand, smearing the cursed wine against
the white of her sheath.
โYou know what the saddest part is? I should have known all along. I was warned,โ Tella said. โWhen I was a child, I read my fortune. It contained the Prince of Hearts. So for almost my entire life Iโve known I was destined for unrequited love. Iโve never let myself become close to anyone, except my sister, for fear theyโd break my heart. It never even occurred to me that the one I really needed to protect myself from was my own mother.โ
Tella coughed on a sound that felt like a sob and sounded like a wounded laugh. โIt seems the people who say you canโt change your fate are right.โ
โI donโt believe that,โ Dante said. โThen what do you believe?โ
โFate is only an idea, but I think by believing in it we turn it into something more. You just said youโve avoided love because youโve believed it wasnโt in your future, and so it hasnโt been.โ
โThat wasnโt the only card I pulled. I also pulled the Maiden Death, and shortly after, my mother vanished.โ
โJust a coincidence. From what Iโve heard of your mother, it sounds as if she would have left whether you pulled the card or not.โ
โButโโ Tella almost told him about the Aracle and all the predictions it had shown her. But had it really revealed the future, or had it been manipulating her along as sheโd suspected last night? Had it used glimpses of possible futures not to help her, but to guide her toward Jacks so that he could free the Fates?
Tella had thought herself so bold and daring by attempting to change her mother and her sisterโs fate. But maybe Scarlettโs fiancรฉ was actually a decent person. And maybe the Aracle had lied about her mother, too. It had shown her in prison and dead, but if Tella didnโt win Caraval, if she left the cards locked in the starsโ vault, her mother wouldnโt die or end up bloody in a jail. Sheโd just remain where she was, trapped in a card.
Like she deserved.
As if reading her thoughts, Dante added, โI donโt believe what you saw today proves that your mother didnโt love you. What she did looked terrible,
but judging her based on a moment like that is the same as reading one page from a book and assuming you know the whole story.โ
โYou think she had a good reason for what she did?โ
โMaybe, or maybe I just want to hope sheโs better than my mother.โ He said it the same careless way heโd told the story about his tattoos, as if it happened so long ago it didnโt really matter. But people didnโt tattoo tales they no longer cared about onto their body, and Tella sensed Dante felt the same about his mother. His mother might no longer have been in his life, but he still felt wounded by her.
Tellaโs hand found Danteโs fingers in the dark. Somewhere in the space between the Temple of the Stars and this cursed place something had shifted between them. Before their relationship was much like Caraval. It had felt like a game. But the moment he set her down on the steps of these ruins, it felt as if theyโd entered the real. When she asked her next question it wasnโt because she was trying to figure out if he was Legend; if anything, she desperately hoped he wasnโt. โWhat did your mother do to you?โ
โI guess you could say she left me with the circus.โ โAre you talking about Caraval?โ
โIt wasnโt Caraval then, just a talentless group of performers who lived in tents and traveled the continent. People liked to say my mother only did what she believed was best for me, but my father was more honest. He liked to drink, and one night he told me exactly what sort of woman she was.โ
โWas she aโฆโ
โI know what youโre thinking, and no. Although I would have respected her more if she was a prostitute. My father said she only slept with him so she could steal something heโd collected in his travels. Theyโd spent one night together, and when she returned shortly after I was born, to drop me off, she wrote a letter to his wife telling her all about the experience, and ensuring I was never truly welcomed into the family.โ
Tella imagined a younger Dante, all gangly limbs and dark hair covering the hurt in his eyes.
โDonโt feel sorry for me.โ Dante tightened the hand around Tellaโs waist and pressed his lips against her head, close to her ear, as he said, โIf my
mother had been a kinder or better person, I might have turned out good, and everyone knows how boring it is to be good.โ
โI definitely wouldnโt be here with you if you were good.โ Tella pictured the wordย goodย withering next to Dante.ย Goodย was the word people used to describe how they slept at night and bread fresh out of the fire. But Dante was more like the fire. No one called a fire good. Fires were hot, burning things children were warned not play with.
And yet for once, Tella hadnโt even thought about pulling away from him. She used to think it was ridiculous, the idea that a girl would give her heart to a boy even though she knew it would also give him the power to destroy her. Tella had exchanged things with other young men, but never hearts, and though she still had no plans to relinquish that part of her to Dante, she was beginning to understand how hearts could be slowly given away, without a person even realizing. How sometimes just a look, or a rare moment of vulnerability like the one Dante had just shared with her, was enough to steal a fraction of a heart.
Tella arched her neck to look up at him. Above his head the sky had changed, filling with ribbons of bruised clouds that made it look as if night had fallen backward. Instead of moving forward the heavens appeared to be shifting toward the sunset, to a time when there werenโt any spying stars, leaving them unwatched and alone in the cursed garden.
โSo,โ she said cautiously, โis all this your way of telling me youโre the villain?โ
His chuckle was dark. โIโm definitely not the hero.โ
โI already knew that,โ Tella said. โItโs my story, so clearly Iโm the hero.โ His mouth tipped up at both corners, and his eyes sparked, growing as hot as the finger now reaching out to trace her jaw. โIf youโre the hero, what
does that make me?โ
His finger dipped to her collarbone.
Heat spread across her chest. This would have been the moment to pull away; instead, she let a hint of challenge slip into her voice. โIโm still trying to figure that out.โ
โWould you like my help?โ Dante dropped his hand to her hips. Tellaโs breathing hitched. โNo. I donโt want your help.โฆ I want you.โ
Danteโs gaze caught on fire and he took her mouth with his.
This was nothing like the drunken kiss theyโd shared on the forest floor, a rough combination of lust and desire for temporary entertainment. This kiss felt like a confession, brutal and raw and honest in a way kisses rarely were. Dante wasnโt trying to seduce her; he was convincing her just how little goodness mattered, because nothing he was doing with his hands could have been considered good. Yet every brush of his lips was sweet. Where others had demanded, Dante asked, slowly sweeping his mouth across hers until she parted her lips, letting his tongue slip inside as he pulled her onto his lap.
Maybe the fountainโs enchantment was at work because Tella imagined by the time she finished kissing Dante, sheโd forget every other boy whoโd ever touched her mouth.
Danteโs lips moved to her jaw, gently nipping and licking as his hands found the rope heโd tied around her waist. Knotting his fingers with it, he pulled her closer, until everything was made of just the two of them. Of their hands and their lips and the places their skin met.
They hadnโt even broken apart and Tella was already thinking of kissing him again, and again, tasting not merely his lips but every single one of his tattoos and scars, until the world ended and they were nothing but shadows and smoke, and Tella could no longer remember the sensation of slipping the cloak from his shoulders and running her hands along his back. Or how it tasted when his lips spoke words against her mouth that felt like promises she hoped heโd keep.
And for the first time in her life Tella wanted evenย more. She wanted the night to stretch into forever, and for Dante to tell her more stories about Fates, and his past, and anything else he wanted to say. In that moment, inside of that kiss, she wanted to know everything about him. She wanted him, and it no longer scared her.
He was right. Tella had wanted to blame the Fates for her misfortunes, but she was the one whoโd always run from the possibility of love. And deep down she knew it wasnโt really about the Fates. It was about her mother and how sheโd left without ever looking back.
Tella claimed she didnโt want loveโshe liked to say love trapped and controlled and ripped hearts apart. But the truth was she also knew love healed and held people together, and deep down she wanted it more than anything. She enjoyed the kisses, but a part of her always wished that whenever she walked away from a boy heโd run after her, beg her to stay, and then promise heโd never leave.
Sheโd accepted the cards sheโd been given and turned them into her fate because it felt like the only way to protect herself after her mother left. But maybe if Tella chose to reject what sheโd seen in the cards then she could have a new destiny. One where she didnโt have to be afraid of love.
When the kiss finally ended, their cloaks were both puddled on the ground, their arms were around each other, and the sky had moved back to where it should be, to the black hour just before sunrise. Only the moon lingered, undoubtedly wishing it had lips after witnessing what Tella and Dante had just done.
Dante spoke against her mouth, this time loud enough for her to hear his words. โI think Iโd like you even if you were the villain.โ
She smiled against his lips. โMaybe Iโd like you even if you were a hero.โ
โBut Iโm not the hero,โ he reminded her.
โThen perhaps Iโm here to save you.โ This time she kissed him first. But it wasnโt as sweet as before. It tasted acrid. Metallic. Wrong.
Tella broke away, and in that moment she swore the stars returned and shined a little brighter simply to be cruel. Light fell over Dante illuminating the blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth. Slow and red and cursed.