"Actual towers?" Marcella's brows shot up. "How does no one notice that?"
"Most of the mansion is invisible from the outside."
"Mio Dio, you magicians don't do things by halves," she teased and nibbled on a biscotto. She moaned, and Cosimo wished she hadn't. "Your son has missed his true calling in life as a chef."
"He sees his calling as feeding and nurturing everyone else and does it very well," Cosimo replied with an awkward laugh.
"It is a beautiful gift that more men should cultivate. Just feed me and tell me I'm pretty and I'm yours," she teased, taking another bite.
Cosimo had to look away to keep his thoughts clean.
"I suppose I had better stop procrastinating and show you what I'm working on," Marcella said and gestured at him.
"My curiosity has only gotten worse since meeting you. I thought you were after the Medici Grimoire as well."
Cosimo followed her down a hall and into another living area. It was lined with bookshelves and was her office and work area. He stared around at the wall, which featured a picture of Caterina Sforza, Cosimo Medici, and other notable figures from the Renaissance.
"You and my sister are going to get along well. She uses walls like this too," Cosimo said, eyes wide. "Can I look closer or..."
"It's fine, go ahead," Marcella replied.
He moved around a chaise lounge and a table with freshly cut flowers in a vase. He fought the urge to touch the threads on the wall and see what they led to.
"What... What is this?" he asked, unable to look away.
Marcella came to stand beside him and tapped on Caterina's portrait. "It is about her. My ancestor. Everyone seems to know the stories of how she defied Cesare Borgia and knew every other powerful person of her time. What's less known is her alchemy andstregoneria," she began, gesturing at photos of a manuscript. "This is theExperimentithat is held in a private archive, but it is still only a copy of the real one. It is filled with alchemy and recipes of what could be referred to as 'natural medicines.' The church already had it in for her, so she carefully hid any aspects that sniffed too vigorously of magic.Her originals were given to her son Giovanni and kept within the Medici family."
"So how does Cosimo the Elder's grimoire come into this? Because it's never been found or confirmed to exist. He was obviously a practitioner and a hermeticist to pay so much money for translations of the ancient texts," Cosimo said, staring at the picture of the great man. "The rumors have been enough for me to follow."
"He was definitely a magician," Marcella agreed and passed him a photocopy of a letter. "I found this among the few things my family still had from Caterina's time. There is very little because so much of it is in other private collections. The letter is to her son, and they discuss the efficacy of different pieces of magic in the Medici Grimoire."
Cosimo scanned the letter, the researcher in him brimming with excitement. "What a treasure, and it is another piece of proof that it exists."
"Yes, and it is my theory—my hope—that if the Medici Grimoire can be found, Caterina's true grimoire will be with it," Marcella said, her breath shallowing with excitement. "I was in France trying to get Catherine Medici's books in the hopes there was some…somehintof whether she knew their locations."
"There are none that I've found," Cosimo murmured before realizing what he had said. "I mean…that is…fuck."
"So you did steal them! You were all very careful about talking about France and Apollo's kidnapping last night," Marcella said, hands on her hips.
"Valentine stole them, not me. He wanted to hide a crime within a crime. If everyone were focusing on missing books, then they could sabotage their labs without it being detected so quickly," Cosimo replied, giving in. "Considering what Valentine then did to the whole building, it was a good thing he took them."
Marcella's eyes narrowed. "Took them fromme. Do you have no morals?"
"Not when it comes to the people who kidnapped and experimented on my son. I'm sorry you got caught up in it, but they were fucking monsters, and your money is better off staying in your pocket than funding them," Cosimo growled. They eyed each other for a long moment before Marcella sighed.
"I didn't know that was what they were up to, and after meeting your children, I can understand why you wouldn't lose any sleep over taking the alchemists down."
"There is some good news about the books."
"Oh?"
"I meant what I said last night that I'm susceptible to bribery when it comes to sharing," he said, trying to lighten the mood. "And if you work with me to find Maria, I will, of course, be more than willing to give you access to my library."
"I don't just want that," she said, looking back at the board.
"No? What else? Because my library is very big and full of rare and wonderful things."
"I don't doubt it, but it's not what I want." Marcella shifted her weight on the balls of her feet. "I have hit a research dead end. If I help you find your sister, I want help to find the Medici Grimoire and Caterina's as well."
