Page 44 of A Dangerous Bargain

Before I can stop him, Leonardo helps himself to my paper and half-filled pen. Then he rolls onto my bed, feet dangling off one end. I take a deep, long breath at the sight of his body dimpling my mattress.

“This is what we have so far.” He sketches a familiar, grumpy face. “Lorenzo de’ Medici is getting married, and the family is having a hard time keeping their supporters’ loyalty…” Lupa appears next, her hands replaced with cloven hooves, the effect softening and not sinister. “Angels are demons, and no one knows but the Medici…” A startlingly fair likeness of me takes shape. “Last, we have your brother, who worked or is working for the Medici and sent you a warning.” His hand moves faster, conjuring swooping elegant arrows connecting the three drawings over them, lines that transform the drawing into a tangled ball of rope. “The question is how are these three tied together?”

He glances up breathlessly as if I might know the answer.

I scoff. Trying to untie this Gordian knot is beyond me. Didn’t Alexander the Great hack it apart with a sword in the end? “How should I know? We lost our only lead. I didn’t catch my brother’s work address because someone dragged me under a table.”

Leonardo’s bright expression dims. “What a pity someone saved your life, then.”

I sigh guiltily. What’s wrong with me? Even when I try to be nice, I fail at it. “I’m grateful for that. And I’m not trying to be a stronzo. There’s a lot to take in, and we’re running out of time.”

It’s not I’m terrified I’ll fail the people who depend on me before I die, and I worry you might be becoming one of them, but it’s still honest, which is big for me.

He takes in a deep, long breath and lets it go with a soft sigh. “I’m not just trying to help you. I don’t want what happened to my stepmother to happen to anyone else. This is bigger than either of us.”

“What do you mean?” That us of his puts me on edge.

He gestures to my window, the city skyline sweeping beyond it lorded over by the distant duomo. “When we reveal the truth—when people learn about the lies—it could be the end of angels in Florence.”

My skin erupts into gooseflesh.

A city without angels.

A city without magic.

“I don’t think the Medici would like that very much,” I whisper.

“I’d say the Medici can kiss my culo, but that’s a pleasure, not a punishment, isn’t it?” Leonardo winks.

I start choking. Leonardo slaps my back, but I’m not expecting it and accidentally kick the candle over.

His sketch catches fire immediately.

We bolt upright, stomping the flame until the room is left in darkness.

Wait, complete darkness? No, ’tis too early. Dinner hasn’t even been served yet.

Leonardo screams and points at a shadow crawling through the window. He snatches a paintbrush from the floor and brandishes the wooden end at the writhing blackness. “Out, foul monster!”

The shadow thumps to the floor, letting in the orange-red twilight behind it. Lupa, her face scrunched in a determined grimace. “I want to help still, if you’ll let me.”

Leonardo’s brush clatters to the floor. “You, a demon, want to help expose the truth about demons in Florence?”

It does seem odd for a creature who’s said—more than once—how much she loves committing crimes.

Lupa hugs her knees to her chest, not quite looking at us. “If I am not supposed to be here, then there’s somewhere else I’m supposed to be.”

Leonardo makes a disbelieving sound, but I don’t join in. I think of Lupa’s rogue magic, the Medici’s reaction over what she did at the fountain. The Medici might be the reason why demons stroll the streets of Florence, but they’re afraid of them too. Their house has never had a demon of its own. They know the dangerous game they’re playing.

And they don’t know Lupa’s playing on our side of it.

“We’ll need you, Lupa,” I say. Leonardo’s eyes start to roll, but I dive under my bed and pull out the key I stole from the Palazzo della Signoria. The little ruby eyes in the skull-shaped handle have a sinister gleam in the dying light.

Leonardo picks it up by the very end, like it’s a stinging scorpion. “Where did you get this tasteless little trinket?”

“It’s the key I accidentally stole. Piero was angry Lorenzo lost it.” My empty hands twist together. “The Medici are frightened. Something’s changing for them, and I don’t think… I don’t think it’s impossible for us to take them down.”

I can’t believe I’m suggesting we dethrone the oldest, richest, most powerful family in Florence, but here we are.