Page 103 of A Dangerous Bargain

“Names are different for demons,” Lupa says. “Secret. Private. Giving away your name gives someone power over you. Earning a new name, though…” She lifts her arms, growing taller and taller. Her horns appear, curving over the crown. Golden flames lick the hem of her dress. “A new name gives you power.”

The devil stares at Lupa’s gold gleam with smoldering hatred. “You tricked me!”

“A mortal’s soul, freely given, is more powerful than a thousand souls stolen.” Lupa’s horns brush the ceiling now.

But the devil is growing larger too, his beautiful eyes burning crimson like the heart of a fire. “You think this is enough to best me? I was king of hell when you were still slithering on your belly.”

Lupa grins unexpectedly. “Who said I was working alone?”

She punches through the ceiling.

A cloud of black pours in from the hole. The cat-demons, a screaming, endless horde of them. The devil shouts and lifts his sword again, but it does nothing. Each one he cuts down rises up whole in a moment.

The room flickers once. Twice.

And then I’m blinking at the top of a tower overlooking a raging river. Half the walls are missing, and an awful wind tears at my limbs. The sky is red; jagged, silent lightning streaks across it. The only thing left from the devil’s throne room is his portrait, but the image has become a black, swirling vortex. The throne room was an illusion, just like the ballroom.

Behind me, there’s a door. The clamor of approaching hooves and feet and paws builds on its other side.

“You call yourself a king, but you’re only a demon like the rest of us.” There’s another flash—lightning?—no, Lupa in a full suit of gold armor. She snaps down her helmet’s visor. “Some of us think it’s time for a queen.”

The devil roars and charges with his sword.

Sparks catch when Lupa parries it with one of her own.

The door shatters behind me.

The demons froth like dark, raging rapids, so fast, I can’t make them out. I throw myself down and crawl into a corner where the floor meets one of the remaining walls. I want to escape down the stairs, but I’m afraid I’ll be knocked off the tower if I stand. Among the demon horde flicker scraps of gold. I gasp when a woman appears, a baby with red-gold hair clasped in her arms. She looks at me, and I know her smile as well as my own heart.

Leonardo’s stepmother.

Madonna santa. The trapped souls have come to fight for Lupa’s side too.

“Do you trust me?” Lupa seizes my front. She’s panting hard, weeping sluggish gold blood from the armored plates along her side. She sees me look and smiles tightly. “He can’t kill me. He can only take me from this body.”

“What about the souls?”

“He can unmake them, but they knew that was a possibility. I gave them the choice the Medici didn’t.” She nods toward what’s left of the devil’s portrait. “I need you to find that in Florence and destroy it. It’s a portal that lets him use his magic on earth.” Her clawed fingers slip under my chin, bite into the delicate skin. “Will you do it? If I win, I will free the stolen souls. You’d get Niccolo back.”

I stare at this demon drenched in gold. Who tricked me. Who saved me.

I nod, eyes burning. “Yes. I’d do anything for that.”

She yanks the gold orb from her chest and blows it to me.

I gasp when it breaks against me and scatters like the seeds of a dandelion. The little pieces sink into my skin, a dusting of embers without the sting. I blink, lifting my arm as it starts to limn with gold.

Just like Niccolo’s trapped soul.

Just like Lupa.

Who shoves me off the tower into the burning sky.

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

I jolt awake, engulfed in white.

For a moment I’m stunned, overwhelmed by the roughness against my skin, the pull of pressure along my arms.