“Ways you don’t get to worry your pretty little head about.” At this, he did look up, and the stare he gave her was serious. Ifshe hadn’t been under Sophie’s aegis, Aida thought she might have experienced true panic. There was danger in his eyes.
“Jeesh, I’m sorry for asking.” Aida took a seat nearby and picked up one of the puzzle pieces, willing herself to act normal. “We can barely leave the palazzo without being stopped by the Carabinieri asking for a permission slip and you casually waltz in. It was a reasonable question.”
“I’m not reasonable.”
“Clearly.” He didn’t respond. She attempted to lock several different pieces together while they sat in silence. The quiet stretched out, punctuated only by the click of Aida’s nails on the table as she searched for the right fit and Mo shuffling his feet as he placed his pieces. After it reached the uncomfortable stage, Aida resolved that she wouldn’t be the one to break the silence.
Finally, after another ten minutes of noiseless puzzling, Mo stood and came around the table to where she sat. He pulled up a chair alarmingly close to her and sat down. “Here.” He took the puzzle pieces she had been working with, deftly found the right companions, and slid them into place.
“What a useful skill to have,” she said, marveling.
Mo put his hand on the back of her chair. “I have many useful skills.”
“You’re sitting awfully close. Are you trying to give me coronavirus?”
“I haven’t been around anyone, and I’ve been masked,” he said mildly. Aida didn’t believe him about the mask, but she was sure he was immune to the virus.
“Then are you trying to seduce me?” she asked, grateful for the aegis miraculously keeping her heart calm.
“Hardly,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow at him, then turned back to the puzzle, picking up a piece. “What other motive might you have for invading my space?”
Suddenly, his hands were upon her, twisting her toward him, his fingers gripping her shoulders. His face drew close to hers.
“Maybe I just want to scare the shit out of you,” he growled.
If not for the aegis, and if she didn’t know he couldn’t harm her, she honestly would have been scared shitless. No one had ever held her in such a way.
“You don’t scare me,” she said. “And you are myemployer. What are you doing?”
He abruptly dropped his hands, and to her surprise, he actually looked sheepish. “True,” he said, turning back to the puzzle. He didn’t move away.
Aida returned to the puzzle, trying to understand what was happening. What did Mo know? If he knew they had found Pandora’s key, wouldn’t he have done something more drastic—fired her? Arranged for another mortal to harm her directly? She thought back to the time she saw him alone in London. His behavior then had been strange, and that was before she had known about Pandora.
“I wanted to see what you would do,” he finally said. “You are unusual, Aida. Unexpected.”
“I’m not sure if that’s good or bad,” she said, setting a puzzle piece in place.
He chuckled. “Neither am I.”
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“I like to periodically check in on Lady Ozie’s interests.”
“Will I ever meet her?” Aida had no desire to meet the goddess of misery, but it seemed like a reasonable question, to meet the woman who was bankrolling her entire livelihood.
“Trust me, you don’t want to be in her sights. Just keep doing what you are doing.”
This time, it was Aida’s turn to laugh, a rueful one. “A whole lot of nothing? This pandemic doesn’t give me much to do. And I would really love to be able to find a bit of happiness right now.”
But not if it will entirely disappear.
“Are there places in Rome you want to visit? Maybe we can make happiness happen for you.” His face had softened, and hewas looking at her with what she thought might be some sort of actual affection. It struck her that he probably wasn’t someone who had ever had a real friend in his life.
“There are so many,” she said, suddenly at a loss. What places should she name? There was a consequence to her choice. If she chose the Pantheon, she was sure another earthquake would make it fall. If she chose one of the museums, the doors might close, or art might be stolen.
“What book are you working on now?”
