INFERNO

CANTO I: FIDELITY

F I D E L I T Y

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❝when, with flames all around him aspirant,
stood flushed, as a harp-player stands,
the implacable beautiful tyrant,
rose-crowned, having death in his hands;
and a sound as the sound of loud water
smote far through the flight of the fires,
and mixed with the lightning of slaughter a thunder of lyres.

dost thou dream of what was and no more is,
the old kingdoms of earth
and the kings?
dost thou hunger for these things, dolores, for these, in a world of new things?
but thy bosom no fasts could emaciate,
no hunger compel to complain
those lips that no bloodshed could satiate,
our lady of pain.❞

-ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE, DOLORES

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P R E V I E W

She blinks into consciousness, the pain at such a distance now that numbness coats the agony fluttering throughout her body. The empty soreness is much more forgiving than the familiar imposing figure in front of her.

He stands a few feet from the wall she is chained to, tie loosened around his neck, collared shirt rolled up with dried blood at the sleeves. In the back of her mind she vaguely thinks this is a bad sign. His countenance is square, gaze even. Even through betrayal is he ever-unreadable, ever enigmatic.

They don't say anything. She is tired, bone tired. And afraid of the answer to the question she has to ask. "You killed him?"

His grin is wicked. "That's what the mafiosi do to traitors, tesoro."

"And what? You won't kill me because we fucked?"

"Something along those lines."

Meha grimaces, turns to her side, and spits blood. The movement sends a spasm of pain down her side and her body buckles. She thinks she sees something—a change in his expression, a tick in his jaw, his fist unclenching and reaching forward ever so slightly— but it is gone in a flash. "I am going to get out of here, and I'm going to run very far. But I'll come back." She pauses. "And I'm going to kill you."

Two beats pass. Meha realizes she doesn't know what he will do, realizes she hardly knows the man in front of her. He approaches slowly, and she is conscious of every step. His hand comes up to graze her cheek, where the blood has crusted over the opening of her injury. When she flinches away, his gaze hardens.

"You won't," he replies, and it is the softest Meha has ever heard it. She wonders if she is dying and this is all a dream. "You won't kill me, because you fell in love with me."

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NEELAM GILL as MEHA RIGHI

MATTHEW DADDARIO as ELI PEROTTA

NOLAN GERARD FUNK as WESLEY GRAHAM

KELSEY CHOW as DAKOTA LIANG

(lil note i probably should've put the preview and casting in the first part i done messed up)

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