She wasn’t going anywhere, and she was saying her goddamn goodbyes.
But I didn’t do anything to stop her.
Not when she pulled away from them and began to walk across the tarmac or when she started up the stairs toward me.
Instead, I found myself walking down to meet her.
The smile that spread across her face dazzled me as we moved toward each other, faster and faster.
Then she was right in front of me.
Elena Lombardi.
And all I could think was mine.
I opened my arms, and she stepped right into them, dropping her bag to wrapped her hands gently around my neck so she didn’t jostle my shoulder.
“I won’t go back to my life before this,” she murmured into my chest as she hugged me. “Don’t leave me here in this purgatory where nothing makes sense anymore except you.”
“I have too much of you in my heart to say no,” I admitted gruffly, pulling her head back by the hair so I could see her face.
Her eyes were that soft gray velvet, warm and glowing. Looking into them, knowing she wanted to risk her entire life for me the way I just had for her, I had never felt more powerful.
“Ti amo,” she told me as if the words couldn’t bear to go unspoken. “I love you, and I’m going with you.”
I laughed. I laughed because we were both crazy and mad and hopelessly lost in this new and wild thing between us, and I didn’t give a damn about the consequences.
“Sono pazzo di te,” I told her before I claimed her lips for a bruising kiss. “I’m crazy about you, Elena. But this new life,” I warned her one last time, “costs a pretty penny. It’ll cost you the full price of your old one.”
She laughed too, her head tipped back to laugh with the stars.
“Okay,” she said simply when she finished, smiling at me, more serene than I’d ever seen her. “They’re all afraid of you, and they all hate me. What a pair we make. Two villains in love. I’m not afraid of anything that will come at us, Dante. I just don’t want to be without you.”
“Then you won’t,” I promised.
And I kissed her.
I wasn’t sure if there was such a thing as happily ever after for people like us, but I’d fight tooth and fucking nail to make sure I gave Elena Lombardi the world. It wouldn’t be the world she thought she wanted, but I’d make her regina of my dark kingdom and in the end, I’d ensure every single one of my soldati would die for her just as they would die for me.
The End.
For now.