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“You can run, but you can’t hide!” I shouted when he stormed down the staircase. He wasn’t a little chicken, so he wouldn’t run to Mom or Dad for help. That was one of the little shit’s few positive traits.
When I caught sight of him again—he was fucking fast, and I was still incapacitated—I hurled two more stars at him in quick succession.
My aim was a little off too, considering my vision wasn’t 100 percent yet, but one star left another cut on his upper arm, and the second ripped a hole into his pants and cut one of his ass cheeks. He cried out but didn’t stop running. Blood drops littered the floor, leaving a trail like breadcrumbs.
“If you kill me, Mom and Dad will be pissed!” Giulio shouted.
“They’ll get over it.”
He rushed out of our part of the wing and through the common room where Kiara, Mom, and Gemma sat on the couches with Luna and Caterina, Savio and Gemma’s daughters.
“Giulio’s bleeding!” one of them piped. They sounded too much alike to distinguish their whiny voices.
“Nevio! Stop it right this moment!” Mom shrieked.
I jerked to a halt and catapulted my last Ninjutsu at Giulio, cutting his other arm too.
The star ended up in the wooden cabinet behind my brother. He came to a stop too. Both his sleeves were ripped and ruined with blood, and his pants didn’t look much better either. I dripped water all over the floor.
Mom’s face was purple with fury. She staggered toward me with a look of utter disbelief. “Have you lost your mind? You could have killed your brother with those stars. What if you’d hit his throat? Or an artery in his leg?”
“I didn’t aim at his thigh but at his ass, and his arms are far enough from his throat. I simply taught him a little lesson.”
“And what would that be?” Mom seethed.
Kiara and Gemma were checking Giulio’s wounds, who squirmed under their insistent care.
“That he shouldn’t throw things at me if he doesn’t want to have things thrown at him.”
Mom scanned my soaked state. “What he did was a stupid prank. What you did was risky stupidity.”
I flashed her a smile even as the engagement of so many facial muscles sent a new stab of pain through my skull.
“I’m fine,” Giulio whined when Kiara called Nino with her cell.
“What did I do to deserve this?” Mom sighed.
“You fell in love with your kidnapper, which is never advisable,” I offered.
Mom gave me a look that suggested she wasn’t as opposed to violence as she liked to pretend. She’d never raised her hand against Giulio or me, even if we’d given her plenty of reason to give us a thrashing. I admired her for it. I couldn’t even fathom how much self-control that required. Dad at least got to kick my ass during fight training.
Nino entered the room, followed by Massimo. They looked from Giulio to me, to the star in the cabinet, then back to Giulio.
Nino didn’t comment, but the tight set of his lips suggested he had no interest in knowing the details.
Massimo went over to the cabinet and pulled out my Ninjutsu after some jolting. He inspected it closely and shook his head. “This masterpiece survived five-hundred years without a scratch, and you have it less than a year, and now it needs restoration.”
“He cut me with it,” Giulio said indignantly.
“What a waste of a beautiful art piece,” Massimo said dryly.
“Is it too early for wine?” Mom asked as she sank on the armrest.
Nino prodded at my brother’s cuts and shook his head. “If your intention was to cause your brother lasting pain, your aim is miserable. None of these need stitches.”
“Look at his butt. I put more effort into that one,” I said.
Giulio backed away. “I’m not showing my butt in front of everyone.”
