Of lies.
My father’s portrait above the fireplace was gone, replaced by my uncle with his beatific smile, a somber Luca by his side, the smell of fresh oil paint still pungent and sharp. A pang went through me, sudden enough, the burning in my eyes became a tear, sliding down over my cheek.
My uncle was erasing my father, a little at a time.
He’d killed Enzo, then me, and now he was turning my brother into some bastardized version of himself. Dante wasn’t the only one I had to save. Somehow, I had to look out for Luca, too.
If I’d known he was corrupting Luca, I wouldn’t have stayed dead.
I moved quickly, feet soundless on the carpet. I took sixty precious seconds to leaf through the piles of paperwork on the desk, not because I expected to find anything, but… people got careless when they were overconfident.
I went to the bookshelf, tipped out the black, bound book on the second shelf down, and the secret door slid open, revealing the safe Enzo had shown me when I was three and explained how the locking mechanism worked when I was twelve.
Up close, the seam around the door was barely visible—a narrow rectangle cut into the wood, just big enough for a strongbox. I traced the edges with my fingertips until I found the tiny indentation. My fingers were bigger now, but…
“Chiave nera,” I whispered, feeling a bit of spellwork seep into the crack, the wood shivering, a silvery glow illuminating the outline. Behind me, a quiet, metallic click had me freezing on instinct.
The door to the study opened, and the chaos of the party invaded the quiet sanctuary where my father’s memory still clung to everything.
I froze, hand resting on the bookshelf, desperately trying to look like I was inspecting the spine titles, not cracking a hidden safe.
Gods, don’t let it be Giovanni, I thought fiercely.Please, not?—
“Excuse me,Signorina,” a familiar voice demanded,and some part of me relaxed. “What are you doing in here? This room is restricted.”
Luca.
Slowly, I straightened, turning to face him, pasting a nonthreatening, warm smile on my pretend face as I prepared to talk my way out of what was clearly a dicey situation.
Not that I would let that stop me.
Outlined by the open doorway, Luca’s brows were drawn tight together, the din of the party drifting in around him. His gaze flicked from me to the books, to the faint outline of the safe.
Clever boy.
My mind raced.
“I’m so sorry,” I summoned up an embarrassed laugh. “I’ve never been in this big of a house. I think I’ve gotten a bit lost.”
He didn’t smile.
“This is my uncle’s private study,” he snapped, stepping inside and closing the door behind him, thank the gods. “Guests are banned from this section of the house.”
“Then perhaps you should put up a warning,” I replied before I could stop myself. “Or a more obvious ward. The current one barely pinched when I walked through. I thought I might have imagined this being off limits.”
“And you weren’t deterred by the hundred or so soldiers posted outside?” With narrowed eyes, he leaned against the shut door, effectively trapping me.
I shrugged. “There wasn’t a soldier in sight when I came in here.”
“I seem to remember you being from Florence.” He tilted his head to the side, lips pinched in a flat line. “Most out-of-townerswouldn’t get past our wards. In fact,”—he stepped closer—“you should have been knocked out cold.”
Idiot, I scolded myself.
“Ah. Right,” I said, toying with the ends of my hair like I was flustered. “I… studied a bit with my aunt Emilia when I was younger. Basic spells. Enough to keep stray ghosts out of the cellar, that sort of thing.”
“Ghosts,” he repeated flatly.
“That was a joke,” I said weakly when his aura sharpened, the air between us tightening.Where was Nico? This would be the perfect time for a rescue.
