“Saturnino,” she whispered back. “After all these years, I finally understand what the Nightflame can do. It has the power to givelife.I’m right, aren’t I?”
Saturnino leaned back onto his haunches and nodded, his gaze intent on hers.
“And because my magic is connected to the gemstone, I have the same power, but in reverse.” She swallowed hard. “My magic kills.”
“Ravenna,” he said, tenderly, softly. “It’s why you’ve been able to make any progress with the virgin stones at all. You are killing the protective magic embedded in the stones.” He regarded her with tender amusement. “Just very slowly.”
“I’ll work harder,” she said swiftly. “Day and night, if I have to.”
“We don’t just need the Nightflames, we need a witch, too. Someone capable of casting the same spell to extend our life for another one hundred years. We haveonechance to live, but if you can’t do it, then I must find someone who can. That’s also why I’ve been searching for your replacement.”
The words settled between them. She knew, as well as he did, that she wasn’t powerful enough to cast that spell. Her magic could only help him so far. The silence stretched, tension curling around them both. Saturnino had never looked more human to her, faint smudges underneath the flat green of his gaze, tousled black hair that reached his shoulders in a tangle, cheeks that were flushed a blue gray.
“How close are you to finding a witch for the spell?”
He shook his head grimly. “It’s a near impossible task. Witches have gone into hiding, using spells to cover their tracks and homes. Ever since the Veil of Fire, the pope’s reign against them has made any news of them rare. It’s why I came up with the idea of a sculpting competition, hoping to find a sculptor and a witch in one place.”
“A witch might still think participating is too much of a risk,” Ravenna said.
“Which is why the prize is a boon,” he said. “It’s well-known that we are powerful allies to the Medici. Any winner could ask for our protection against Rome and it would be given.”
Ravenna looked at him narrowly. “Because it serves your interests, too.”
The corners of his lips twitched, the merest hint of a smile. “Yes.”
“You’ve thought of everything.”
“I didn’t plan for you.” He shook his head at her in wonder. “And now you know our secret. I’ve never told anyone what I am. What we all are. It’s a weakness, and if our enemies were to find out, it would be the end of me, the end of us all.”
“Saturnino, I’m not your enemy.” Ravenna reached for him, but he jerked away from her and launched himself to his feet.
He narrowed his eyes, furiously bright, and his voice dropped to a lethal murmur. “Aren’t you?”
“Maybe at first, but not anymore.” Ravenna held out her hand, coaxing him to take it. “You can trust me.”
“If it were me or your brother on the line, who would you choose?” he asked in that same soft whisper.
Ravenna dropped her hand, stunned. That wasn’t fair.
There was the briefest flash of devastation on his face before his expression shuttered. “You didn’t ask me what happened to Sforza’s body,” he said, voice oddly flat. “What I ought to have done was to tell the others of his murder, to warn them we have a spy in our midst working with the pope to kill off our allies.”
She covered her face with her hands, understanding coming swift. He’d had the chance to ruin her, to drag her in front of the others and reveal her treachery against them. “Saturnino.”
“Instead I went back for it, and dumped Sforza’s body into the river,” he said. “Now no one knows where he is, or that he was murdered tonight.”
Ravenna lowered her hands, gripped them tight in her lap.
His voice was quiet, edged in heartache. “I did it to save you frommyfamily.”
Saturnino closed himself off, slamming a door between them. No matter what she said or did, he would not answer. His face lost all expression, even the pain she knew he felt.
He’d never let her near him again. He’d never let her touch him again.
He swept out of the room without another look in her direction, leaving her alone with her jumbled thoughts about statues and spells and witches who dabbled with both. She drew her robe tight against her body. Despite the heat from the fire, she was chilled through. The fury on his face had shaken her. Ravenna didn’t know where she stood with him. He took all the answers with him and left her not knowing what tomorrow would bring for her.
For them.
But she’d seen also seen his confusion—he’d been wrecked, hadn’t he? As baffled and unnerved as she was by what happened in the river, and just now when he’d held her in his arms.
