Once they were all inside, Marcella touched the slab of stone, and it slid back into place. "This is incredible."
"This is magic, love," Cosimo replied.
Bridget dug into her backpack and began to pass out beanies and headlamps. Cosimo straightened Marcella's for her. "You look so cute in a beanie."
"I look cute in everything," she replied, her eyes shining with excitement. "Let's go."
"You first, in case your ancestors decided to set traps for everyone but them," Yelena suggested. They all turned to stare at her. "What? Makes sense. I can't feel any, but it's better to let Marcella handle it."
Cosimo's dragon writhed under his skin, hating the idea of Marcella walking into any trap.
"Cosimo always lets me go first, don't worry," Marcella said with a devilish grin that made Cosimo hot all over.
"Gross," Valentine muttered.
Cosimo wrapped his fingers around Marcella's. "We go together."
"Always," she said and winked.
"We are right here," Bas complained.
Cosimo ignored his children and turned back to the tunnel. "How long is this?"
"It's about two kilometres to the castle," Bridget said from behind them. "The university's digital scans didn't show any cave-ins on this route."
"Probably reinforced them with magic to make sure that if the castle were having the shit blown out of it by cannons, it wouldn't collapse," Cosimo replied.
In front of him, Marcella was shining the torch on the tunnel walls. In the dim light, Cosimo could make out tears in her eyes.
"What is it?"
Marcella sniffed, letting go of his hand so she could touch the rough walls. "My family made these. I don't feel any ghosts, but it's similar to being alone in a lounge room and somehow knowing someone is in a room upstairs. That probably isn't right. It's the feeling of a presence?"
"I know what you mean,tesoro. Take as long as you want. We are in no hurry," Cosimo said, resting his hand on her back.
"I don't want to break up the moment, but do you guys see that?" Bridget asked and pointed further down the tunnel. "All the walls are rough but that looks like a corner of some kind."
Cosimo shone his light where she was pointing. The stone was smoothed out, and there was a defined edge. They hurried down to inspect it. The polished stone formed a large archway, but there was only rough stone in the middle of it.
"It was like they were making a doorway and didn't bother building a tunnel that way," Yelena commented. "Seems like a waste."
"No, it's not a waste," Marcella said and bit into the cut on her finger again. She ran the blood over the wall, and it melted away, revealing a large room covered in dust.
Valentine conjured a fireball in his hand and touched it to the torches on the walls.
Marcella put her hands over her mouth. The room had long wooden work counters covered in pots of brushes, quills, ink, half-finished sketches, and piles of old paper and vellum scrolls. Four bookshelves were crammed with books. The Sforza insignia was painted on a wall, as well as frescoes of Roman gods, saints, angels, and allegorical symbols.
"They really were magicians," Marcella said, her eyes filled with unshed tears. "My magic isn't wrong at all. My family just forgot they had it. I'm not broken."
Cosimo put an arm around Marcella's shoulders. "No, my love, you are perfect in every way."
"I… We need to keep looking," she said, wiping the tears off her cheeks. "Everyone, take a bookshelf and start searching."
Cosimo stayed close to Marcella without trying to crowd her. Soon, he got lost in gently pulling out books and inspecting their contents. He could feel older variations of Marcella's power seeping out of the pages of the books from her ancestors' writing and handling them. He was so used to that feeling that when he touched a stiff cover of red leather, it was like cold water had been splashed into his face.
Next to it was a book with a strangely woven spine of cream and red leather. Cosimo dropped his hand like he had been burned.
"Marcella, come here and look at this," he asked, his mouth suddenly dry.
