Starling (9 page)
Authors: Fiona Paul
It was Narissa too. Cass hadn’t known what Agnese’s handmaid
would say to her, but she hadn’t expected her to be welcoming, and
helpful.
And forgiving.
If only Cass could forgive
herself
so easily.
She reclined next to Luca on her set of crates. Slipper hopped up
and nuzzled in between the two of them, giving Luca’s cheek a
scratchy kiss with his tongue. Then he curled into a ball and fell fast
asleep. Cass knew she should sleep too, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the Order and vampires and her parents and how all of it
was connected. She couldn’t stop dreaming of the day she and Luca
might finally feel free.
She pushed her makeshift bed next to Luca’s, drawn toward his
warmth. As he changed position slightly, he murmured something
unintelligible. His eyelids fluttered open, just for a second. “I love
you, Cass,” he said. “Always.”
She smiled weakly. It was so easy for him. She hadn’t told him she
loved him since the morning after they had escaped from the Palazzo
Ducale. Both of them had been flooded with emotions and full of
resolve to take down the Order, but Cass had meant it when she said
it.
At least she thought she had.
mind’s most easily exploited weakness.”
—THE BOOK OF THE ETERNAL ROSE
four
he next day, Luca awoke free of fever and feeling stronger. Cass informed him of everything Narissa had told
her.
“I don’t know, but we should find out more before we go to Florence,” she said. “If Belladonna has come to town, it quite possibly
means that she believes the book is here.”
Luca looked down and noticed Slipper still curled up on the wool
blanket. He petted the cat gently. “What do you recommend?” he
asked.
“I suppose we could do like Narissa and eavesdrop at the market,” Cass suggested.
“What about that workshop you told me about, the one with the
symbol for the Order? Perhaps we should go by there and see if
there’s any obvious activity.”
Cass blanched. She had mentioned Angelo de Gradi’s workshop
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to Luca but had never told him that she had broken in with Falco. He
didn’t know about de Gradi’s collection of body parts or how the
physician had nearly caught Cass trespassing. He didn’t know the
mere mention of the place terrified her. She scooped Slipper into her
arms, nestling the cat against her chest. He blinked sleepily and then
started to purr.
“Cassandra,” Luca said. “You’ve gone white as a seabird. I don’t
mean for us to go inside. I thought we might watch the building for a
bit and see if anyone comes or goes.”
She nodded, but the thought of it made her breath go taut and her
heart slam against her rib cage. The room with the tin basins appeared before her. She could smell the tinge of balsam in the air. She
could feel the fabric of her nightgown catching on the broken shutter.
“Or I could go alone,” Luca offered. “You could wait here for
me.”
Cass knew they would be in little danger if they were only going
to watch the de Gradi workshop from afar, but she never wanted to
go anywhere near that horrible place again if she didn’t have to. But
how to explain that without divulging that she had been inside, with
Falco?
“What if you go to the workshop and I go to the market,” she suggested, releasing a squirming Slipper to the floor. “Then we can meet
back here later and discuss what we’ve found.”
Luca watched as the cat pounced on a ball of dust. “It’s not safe
for you to go wandering around the Rialto by yourself.”
“Luca, be reasonable. I’ll borrow a servant’s outfit and no one
will even notice me. The market is always crowded. I’ll blend in with
