Jess pushed back, now using every ounce of her strength to keep the blade from his neck. Looking down, little Hector stood in front of them, staring, the whites of his eyes almost glowing. The little boy’s face disappeared into the blackness.
Vengeance had filled Jess’s life. The desire to get even. The need to punish for past sins.
Enough.
Jess wrenched the dagger away, but held Nico close. “I forgive you,” she whispered into his ear and put the dagger in her right pocket.
Stepping around him, she took Hector’s hand, and backed away to the cable car door on the left, the one open to a hundred feet of empty blackness to the sharp rocks below.
“I’m sorry, Billy,” Jess whispered. She picked up Hector and held him close. Standing at the edge of the open door, she leaned forward and hit the clutch mechanism.
The cable car shuddered and released. It started sliding down across the valley.
Jess stepped back toward the open door, crossed her arms around Hector and fell backward into blackness.
39
CHIANTI, ITALY
WEIGHTLESS, JESS FELL backward through empty space, clutching Hector in her arms. The cable car disappeared upward and away against a maelstrom of black and crimson clouds. Nico’s face stared at her as it receded into the distance.
She hoped she got this just right. Clenching her teeth, she gripped Hector with every ounce of her strength.
The cord bit into her waist and armpits, savagely ripping at her body. She’d wrapped a length of the cord around Hector, and she cradled him, did her best to shield him as she felt the cord stretch behind her, the wind whistling as they swung in a downward arc. Her right foot slammed into the ground, dragged through the grass for an instant before they swung up and away.
Two seconds later they reached the top of the arc, and began to swing back. When she ran up here, through the castle, she arrived before Nico and grabbed the improvised rope swing she’d set up a few days before.
Spinning, holding Hector with her left arm, she pulled the dagger from her right pocket. Lifting it above her head against the cord, she pressed the blade into it, forcing it back with all her might as she felt her leg graze the ground again. The blade cut through and they tumbled through space, landing hard in a tangled heap on the grass. She kept the blade high, felt pain lancing through her shoulder as they crunched into the earth.
Jess spat out a mouthful of dirt and grass and rolled to one side. “Hector,” she groaned, “are you okay?”
It was dark, and Jess struggled to look at Hector. Tangled underneath her, he didn’t move. Panic flooded her veins. “Hector!?”
Coughing, he pulled himself from under her. Trembling, he smiled at Jess. “Che figata!”
Jess laughed, squeezing him into her. “You liked that?”
His eyes darted up, and Jess followed them, craning her neck around. The cable car was still visible, halfway across the valley, illuminated by the glow of Monterufoli. Nico’s pale face was a dot of white against black. Booming thunder. The ground trembled again, a thick cloud of ash swirling over the top of the cliffs.
As Jess watched, the cables swung up and down, vibrating with the ground. A cable jumped its guide, and in slow motion, the cable car hopped up and then down, spinning, tumbling from the sky. It fell hundreds of feet into the surging sludge below.
The cloud of ash enveloped them.
“Hector, which way?” Jess coughed.
She knew there was a doorway from the ledge, a tunnel leading into the caves. They used it when Giovanni showed her around, when they first came out there. Sitting upright, she cut away the improvised harness she’d tied around herself.
Wiping dirt and ash from his eyes, Hector stood, looked to his left, then right. He pointed.
“Good boy.” Jess pulled the last of the rope from her body and staggered to her feet.
A blast of hot wind brought with it a soup of ash, fine particles and thick flakes. Jess pulled Hector’s torn t-shirt up around his mouth, doing the same for herself. Holding his hand, she followed him into the swirling black soup, scrambling over rocks. They reached the vertical cliff face, but she could only see for a few feet. Her eyes stung, watered, and she tried to wipe them but that only made it worse.
Hector stood bolt upright, shaking. He wiped his eyes, smearing them black, tears streaming down his face. Cracking thunder boomed, the ground shuddered. Pebbles showered onto them from the cliffs above.
“It’s okay.” Jess held him to her, holding up one hand to shelter them. “Come on.”
She grabbed his hand, pulled him to the left, wiping her eyes. They picked their way through the jumbled rocks, searching for an opening, but they reached a yawning edge of blackness.
Jess swore under her breath. They must have missed it. She didn’t remember this edge. The ground was disappearing from beneath their feet, the cliffs shearing off into the valley. Another blast of hot air enveloped them, the soup of ash swirled thick and acrid. Cradling Hector, she crouched in the rocks by the wall. “We’ll stop for a minute and let this pass.”
But she didn’t know if it would.