"But..." she began and dragged her eyes away. "No, you're right. We need to find your sister, and I feel like if I were left to wander in here for too long, you wouldn't get me out again."
An excellent plan, Cosimo's dragon agreed. Gods help him, his own beast was conspiring against him.
Marcella marveled at the paintings, sculptures, and tapestries as they exited the library and headed towards Maria's tower.
Cosimo, who had lived his entire life in the mansion, had grown sensitive to its moods over the years. It shouldn't have surprised him that it liked Marcella, just as all his children did.
Still, he sensed the house trying to cocoon her in safety, warming the air around her dress and flooding the room with sunshine that Cosimo was sure the rest of Ireland wasn't having.
"This house… It feels..." she whispered and touched a polished oak banister. "Is it alive?"
"In a way. It has its own sentience, definitely. I've never had to worry about anyone trying to break in here, that's for sure. If they got past Valentine's wards, then I'm sure the house would deal with trespassers," Cosimo admitted. He told her about the house's tendency to create and remove rooms and how it was that they knew wherever Maria was, that she was alive.
"It must have been hard to lose your wife's rooms," Marcella said, and Cosimo almost tripped on a step.
"It was. I really lost my mind then, but with the help of my boys, we created a new normal," he admitted. He had never really talked to anyone outside of the family about it, but there was something about Marcella that when he started talking, he didn't want to stop.
"I can't imagine. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I left my partner, and it was the best thing I ever did. I can't imagine losing someone I actually liked," she said and squeezed his arm.
"You never thought about getting remarried?" he asked.
Marcella shook her head. "No. I tried dating, but it was awful."
"I tried too after a few years, and it was so bad that I never tried it again," Cosimo said with a sympathetic laugh. He thought about Henry's words and what had happened to the men she had dated. "From the scorn I heard from your ex yesterday, I wouldn't put it past him to try and hex anyone you dated. Henry seems to think so, too."
"Henry has been telling you gossip again, I see," she said with a knowing smile. "Any misfortune those men met after the few dates we had was on them."
"But you are worried about what Carlo can do from afar. It's why you are wearing the extra protection today, yes?" Cosimo pressed.
Marcella's hand reached up to fiddle with the pendants around her neck.
"What makes you think they aren't to protect me from you?" she teased.
"You aren't scared of me,signorina. My dragon side would know."
Marcella relented with a sigh. "Yes, I put it on because talking with Carlo yesterday made me uneasy. I felt his mother's magic prodding at my protections around the apartment last night. She's trying to spy on me again."
"I see. Well, I have a solution for that," Cosimo said. He pulled out his phone and texted Valentine to go with Yelena and set additional wards around the apartment building.
"Do I want to know?" Marcella asked, raising a brow.
"The kids want to help out in the ways they are good at. Renata won't be bothering you again," Cosimo replied and put his phone away.
Marcella was quiet as they walked up the stairs of Maria's tower. "Thank you," she said softly.
"Think nothing of it," Cosimo replied. "It's our fault you have to open that door to them again, so it is the least we can do."
Marcella's grin turned mischievous. "Encountering such strange magic is probably going to give Renata a good rattling too. The old hag has it coming. If nothing else, it might mean she behaves if we have to see her face-to-face."
"For their sakes, I hope we don't have to be in the same room as them," Cosimo said darkly.
If Marcella noticed his tone, she wisely said nothing.
Cosimo opened the chamber door for her. "Welcome to my sister's madness."
12
Marcella wondered if there would ever be a point at which the Greatdrakes family stopped surprising her. Looking at the archaeological cave of wonders in front of her, she doubted it.
