And when I said the worst…I meant her grandfather, whom I was almost positive wants revenge, my parents who are dead-set on ruling from beyond their graves, and the final act of Calliope’s plan, which she hadn’t told me yet.
But what I knew what it had to be…either she was going to betray me or we were going to end up betraying everyone else.
“Boss,” she whispered as she lay on the bed opposite our daughter.
“La mia anima,” I answered with my eyes still shut.
“We’re finally, truly, really here.”
That caused me to open eyes. Her gaze was focused on our daughter.
“Do whatever you need to keep it that way,” I replied and she shifted her gaze to me. I nodded once and she nodded back.
I never wanted to love anyone as much as my parents loved each other; love was dangerous, it was blinding, it was chains on a person’s soul, heart, and mind. And yet here I was. Unleashing hell upon my family, my city, myself, all for a woman I should have killed five years ago. A woman crafted by her grandfather perfectly for me, a Trojan horse…how foolish had love made me? I could have chosen the easy road. I could have been with Ivy. Instead, I was here. Daring the gods.
Whose side will you be on at end of this, Calliope?
If I’m wrong, if it’s not mine…could I even stop you anymore?
I could. But I don’t want to.
So, let me hope I am not wrong.
Let me hope this isn’t a Greek tragedy and I don’t have to kill my soulmate.
2
“No one can serve two masters;
for either, he will hate the one
and love the other,
or
he will be loya
l to the one
and despise the other.”
~ Matthew 6:24
CALLIOPE
I could not help but stare at them. Ethan’s dark brown hair was a mess on the pillow. His eyelashes were unrealistically long, and our daughter was tucked under his muscular arm beside him, her hair also a brown frizzy mess. He appeared just as innocent and angelic as she did. My little family. How badly I wished all of this was simpler, that I could just lie down next to them and go to sleep, too. There were times, mostly times like these, I wanted to forget my past and give in to a happily ever after. But I was too smart for that. Happily ever after did not exist. It wasn’t the way of the world. Suffering, betrayal, pain, death, those were guaranteed. That’s why I liked the Greek myths. They felt more real. So, I knew that this wouldn’t end happily, and I was trying my best to prepare myself for it.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered down to him before carefully dropping the poison into his ear.
He did not even flinch. Like I said, Gigi got it from him. It took time, but when Ethan felt safe, comfortable, in his own element, he slept like the dead, too.
Shifting, I took the vial with me and moved back to the bathroom. There, I got my other phone, several messages already waiting. It was the last one that was the most important.
“Non nobis solum bait sumus.” Not for ourselves alone are we born, to which I replied: “Invita remanisit in vita,” and so she remained, unwillingly, alive…
How many years had it been since I’d learned this code, since I’d used Latin at all? It felt like another lifetime…It took me a long time to understand it because I could not speak it often. However, the older I became, the more sense I found in it. If Latin were a dead language, it was the only language an assassin should use. And what made it harder for others to understand was that each phrase had another deeper and complex meaning…all but one. All but one, and it was the one who sent back a reply.
“Carpe noctem.” The opposite of seize the day—seize the night—also meaning kill now.