The rafters smelled of dust and old magic. No servants, no polished wood, no glass chandeliers dripping beeswax. Just a battered table, a few worn, mismatched mugs in the sink, and a staircase that looked like it had seen better centuries.
I pushed up my sleeves and followed him through the rest of the rooms, trying not to think about how my family would react if they saw where I’d ended up.
Not the gleaming Dominico island palace, the fortress on the water.
Not the sprawling, luxurious Sala del Giuramento at the east end ofVenice.
This…shit hole.
“I think I’ll call this place Casa Di Merda,” I announced with a grin. “Every house needs a name, after all.”
Somehow, that cheered me up, the idea that Uncle Giovanni—with his pretend vow of poverty and his false humility—would beoffendedby this humble place.
“Where is all your stuff?” I studied the table in the kitchen and the two plain wooden chairs. “Or do you travel with nothing but a couple of knives and a bad attitude?”
He smirked, plucking a shirt off a hook on the wall and covering up all that damaged skin. “You say that like knives and attitude aren’t enough.” Then his expression sobered. “I expect you will want to bring some things from home,tesoro?”
I lifted my skirt. “If you want to see me in anything other than this dress and bare feet, then, yes, I could use a few personal items. If I leave now, I can meet Luca and my uncle at the house and…”
“No,” he cut me off with a slash of his hand. “For now, you need to keep your distance from your uncle.Andyour brother.”
“You don’t tell me what to do. I played your games in front of your family, but I trust my kin, and my brother is worried about me. We aren’t… used to being separated.” Now that some of the drowsiness was wearing off, my body was humming with energy.
Dante’s blood was a powerful thing, humming through my bones. Like I’d been stuffed full of raw, untapped magic, waiting to explode into movement, which might explain my restlessness.
“You’re twins?” He arched a brow when I nodded.
“He’ll be safe enough, and the distance is necessary.” His rough tone smoothed over. “Marcello will have soldiers—spies—posted around your family palazzo. Your brother has a temper, made worse by last night’s… events. A day or two of keeping your heads down will prevent any overambitious guards from making a mistake.”
I leveled a glare at my pretend husband, and he sighed.
“I wouldn’t put it past Marcello to give his men instructions to hurt your brother to draw you—and therefore me—into a confrontation. Let’s not tempt fate and keep Luca safe at the same time, shall we? But you are correct, and as much as I like seeing you barefoot…”
How I wished I could kill someone with a look.
“I will go to the palazzo and get your things,” he said, after a pause. “But I will need a list.”
After a short argument with myself over his controllingattitude, I acquiesced because I very much wanted to get out of this dress.
I rattled off everything I required and then some. Dante supposedly memorized my very long list, warning me I shouldstay put, that we wouldn’t want to riskanother incident, as if I had anything to do with last night’s chaos.
Then he vanished.
I entertained myself imagining him dragging back twenty steamer trunks worth of things I both needed and asked for out of sheer spite.Who was I kidding? He’d probably stopped paying attention after I mentioned everything I owned was on the third floor.
As soon as he was gone, my chest loosened for the first time since the island.
Maybe for the first time since I’d found Father in the garden.
The kitchen had three cracked plates and a handful of mismatched forks, two pots for cooking, and a hodgepodge of old, bent cooking utensils. “This is… just fucking lovely,” I muttered, sweeping my hair up off my neck when I sensed it—the faintest tug at the edge of my awareness.
Magic. Strong.Strange.
Somewhere up above me.
There was another protective seal in this house. Not the main ward—the one surrounding the building, woven into every crack. This was more concentrated. More precisely focused.
I started up the stairs, following the faint hum of power in the air.
