Page 79 of The Don's Deadly Assassin

“I planned to kill you,” I whisper “that night in the garden. Then I pricked myself, by accident, on the arrow. And it was as if the air around us was set alight, burning in the most beautiful colors, and it passed through me. Life itself. A force so powerful, that I thought the world couldn’t exist without you in it. I couldn’t kill you, Vincenzo. I didn’t know back then, but it was that moment I felt love, for you.”

His eyes snap open and lock onto mine, incredulously. “You didn’t know it was love?” he asks.

I shake my head and wring my hands in my lap. I look down, letting all emotion pass through me. "From the moment I fell in love with you, Vincenzo, everything changed. My world shifted, and the lines between right and wrong switched places. I found myself questioning everything I'd been taught, everything I'd believed in. The Handler thought I was weak for not killing you. He said he’d do it himself. Since then, I’ve been staying by your side, trying to protect you. That woman in The Forum, she was there to kill you. There were … two more before her.”

As the words pour out of me, I can feel my love for Vincenzo swelling in my chest, threatening to burst forth like an unstoppable wave. It's a powerful force, one that both terrifies and exhilarates me.

I know I did the right thing, protecting him.

“Before her?” Vincenzo gasps.

“The waiter in the restaurant and an assassin at the night market,” I tell him everything. The how, the where, the what.

"Vincenzo, I know you must be hurt and furious and might not believe a word I say, but I tell you the truth: my feelings for you are genuine," I plead, my eyes brimming with tears. "Even if it costs me everything, I need you to know I wouldn’t have changed the past. I wish it had been different. I wish your friend still lived, but I’d safeguard you in every damn situation from the Handler.”

My heart hammers in my chest, and I struggle to find the words that will reveal the depths of my feelings. "Vincenzo," I whisper, barely able to control the tremor in my voice, "I... I love you." My eyes search his face for a reaction, desperate for reassurance that he won't turn away from me after hearing the truth.

His expression is unreadable, but his eyes remain locked on mine, encouraging me to continue. The vulnerability I feel in this moment is overwhelming, but I know I must face it head-on if there's any hope of saving our future together.

"Since I fell in love with you, my world changed. You became everything I didn't know I needed," I admit, tears threatening to spill from the corners of my eyes. "The myth of the arrow isn’t a lie. That prick is so powerful that how could it not have been destined for us to be here the way we are?”

I stand up, my legs feeling weak beneath me, and walk over to the cupboard. My hands tremble as I reach for the hidden safe behind a stack of books.

Swallowing hard, I enter the code and retrieve the golden arrow. Its faint glow casts a soft light in the room. I pick it up, a heat burning through my skin.

Slowly, I walk over to him and extend my hands with the arrow towards him. His eyes widen, and I see the reflection of the gilded edges, the glow, the inverted heart, the small emeralds and rubies - all of it in his eyes.

“The light!” he murmurs, entranced, as he reaches over to touch it. An electric current passes through me and does through him, too, for he recoils from the arrow’s touch and melts further into his chair, still staring at it as it lies in my hands.

“This is what the professor was protecting,” I tell him. “This is what the Handler seeks. This is what made me fall in love with you, and this…” I say, with finality, “is the reason I was sent on the mission to kill the professor. And now, it's what ties us together, whether we like it or not.”

I watch as Vincenzo's eyes widen, the weight of my revelation sending shockwaves through his body. His gaze is fixed on the golden arrow in my trembling hands, and I can see the gears turning in his mind as he tries to piece together the gravity of the situation.

"Camela... What does this mean?" he asks, his voice barely more than a whisper, mirroring my own vulnerability from moments ago.

As I say the words, my heart races, fearing his reaction. Yet, I know I must be honest. I take a deep breath and continue, "This arrow has brought us together, and I believe it has a greater purpose. It’s said to belong to the gods themselves. But I also know that you have every right to be angry with me. I am angry that I kept this from you for so long that I let our love grow while hiding this secret while being the perpetrator of your friend’s death. From this point on, the arrow is yours to do with what you like. Your friend wanted you to find it. Well, here it is."

I take his hand, a shiver going down my spine and force it into his hands.

He looks at it, turning it around in his fingers, then looks up at me. With all the courage I can muster, I jut out my jaw and tell him the truth. “I deserve to be punished. You have every right to seek revenge, and whatever my fate ought to be, it’s yours to decide. But, there is one truth stronger than all the rest. It’s that I love you, Vincenzo Consolini. Enough to give my life in place of yours, should the need ever arise.”

Chapter 28

Vincenzo

Camela's confession rings in my ears—she’s the one who killed my friend to take this very artifact. I glance down at the arrow in my hand, watching as it glimmers softly in its own dim light. The urge to throw it across the room is almost overpowering, but I can’t bring myself to.

The arrow overpowers my instincts and nestles into me. So, I turn it over in my hands, feeling the cold metal against my fingertips as I struggle to clear my thoughts.

Shock and disbelief war within me. My first instinct is to throw her in the dungeon or kick her out into the street, hoping she’ll end up living in the gutter.

But when that thought crosses my mind, the arrow warms up in my hand, almost sending me a message of some kind. I remember something, out of the blue, a small detail in all she told me. She came back to shield my life against the assassins when the Handler thought her incapable of carrying out her mission to eliminate me.

I feel the golden power thrumming through my fingers. Could something so small really turn the world upside down with a single prick? I want to give Camela the benefit of the doubt. She is just a girl, after all. A girl trained to kill without question.

"I don't understand," I say finally, looking up at her, ignoring all the ways she told me she loves me. "Why did you have to kill him? An innocent man?"

Camela meets my gaze steadily. "It was my mission. The Handler never told me why. It’s always been like that. He orders, and I do.”

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