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She shook her head with a faint smile, making a note to look that one up. Too restless to sit, she grasped the rungs of a rolling ladder mounted against a wall of bookshelves and began to climb.
At a rustle of movement below, she peered down at Dante. “Are you trying to look up my skirts?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I’m making sure it doesn’t take off and drop you on your ass. I don’t feel like catching you.”
“Oh, Dante,” she crooned. “Youdoknow how to make a girl’s heart flutter.”
He smirked. “If I was trying to make you flutter, you’d know it.”
She dropped the book, aiming for his aggravatingly gorgeous face, but she knew he’d catch it regardless.
“The Siege of Avalin,” he read, holding the ladder in place with his foot so he could open the book.
She wrinkled her nose. “Well, if that doesn’t capture the mood of the evening.” Of all the books in the Cittadella, she’d pulled out an account of the one Divorando that Saverio almost didn’t survive.
“The Finestra who panicked, right?”
“Yep. Ran back to the city and tried to hide. The Fortezza was breached, rivers of blood ran through the streets, hundreds were massacred before his Fonte coaxed him back to the peak. Oh, take my advice and skip chapter seven.”
Dante promptly flipped to chapter seven, because of course he did. “‘The Orphans Left Behind.’ Nothing compared to waterfalls of blood or whatever you said.Orphansmeans they were lucky enough to survive, at least.”
“And is surviving always better?”
“Point taken.”
“It’s not the worst chapter, just the saddest. They put the babies in group homes, and within months, most stopped crying and refused to eat.” She blinked away tears. “Only one group thrived.”
She climbed down, turning to lean against the ladder, but Dante was too close and too tall, so she found the lowest rung of the ladder and pushed up on her toes, as if he wouldn’t notice she’d suddenly grown six inches.
Dante’s eyes twinkled at her sudden height and he stepped back. “And?”
Alessa hopped to the ground. “And?… Oh, the babies. Right. The girl caring for them had lost her entire family in the siege, so she held them all the time. Singing to them, rocking them, talkingto them. Mostly just holding them. That was all it took. Everyone thought they needed food and shelter, but touch was what they needed most. Without it, the other babies simply gave up.”
Dante bit his lip. “And you know how they felt.”
She flushed. “Not entirely, but I can relate. That’s all.”
He tapped the book against his palm. “Does it happen when you touchanyone?”
“As far as I can tell.” She laughed, sharp and bitter. “Ironic, isn’t it? I wouldkillto hold someone’s hand, but if I do, I kill them.”
“And all this isolation is supposed to make you appreciate the holiness of connection or something?”
“Yes. A Finestra’s earthly relationships are severed so we can avoid distractions, remain pure of heart, and be fully committed to the quest at hand. I’m supposed to appreciate connection more by not having any.”
“Seems contradictory.”
“It worked. Made me quite eager to have a Fonte.”
His eyebrows drew together. “You got a real shitty deal, Finestra.”
“Alessa,” she said softly. The words tasted strange, awkward and unfamiliar on her lips. “My name is Alessandra Diletta Paladino.”
“Thought you weren’t supposed to have a name.”
“I’m also not supposed to kill my Fontes or have a man in my suite.”
He gestured to the wall. “You going to tellthem?”
