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Ryland spotted Caroline’s frown, but he couldn’t say anything. Lucia liked pointing to the obvious that humans missed. As a dragon herself, Lucia had been around for a very long time. Very little scared her as the alpha of her dragon thunder.
“Caroline has heard all about you,” he assured Lucia.
“It’s true,” Caroline cut in. “I hope you have fun stories about this one when he was young and dumb.”
Lucia laughed. “He isstillyoung and dumb. He just hides it all behind that handsome face of his.”
Ryland chuckled nervously. Lucia was close to his mother, and shewouldhave many stories from his youth. Nothing he wanted Caroline to know. “I was hoping to get a moment alone with you. I’ve got some questions with a case.”
Lucia faked a pout. “And here I thought this was only a social call.”
“You throw a party like no one else, Lucia, but we have come a long way to speak with you.”
“Oh, fine.” She laughed. “This way.”
Lucia led them to a lavish yet deserted hallway. She pulled a gold key from the folds of her dress and unlocked the door to a massive room. A big wooden desk was the centerpiece in front of enormous windows and an even bigger bookcase. She sat on one of the leather couches and motioned them to take a seat on the opposite side of her. “What are you up to, little wolf?”
He ignored the second wolf comment and hoped the keen and observant Caroline wouldn’t notice it. “We would like to know what you can tell us about the Bonetti family, more specifically, the youngest daughter, Isadora.”
Lucia pursed her lips. “Isadora Bonetti? Now there is a name I haven’t heard in an age.”
“So you have heard of her,” Caroline pressed.
“Of course, she’s been known as Isadora Fiore since she married her father’s competitor.”
Ryland and Caroline exchanged a look. “Are you sure that’s the name?” Caroline asked.
“Yes, of course I am. Isadora tried to join my parties, as you probably suspected,” Lucia said to Ryland. “But she never made it through the front door.” Ryland could only guess as to why Lucia would’ve declined to host Isadora. “I’ve never had much patience for people that lack loyalty,” she added with a meaningful look. “Betraying her father like that,” she shook her head.
Ryland understood. If Isadora hadn’t been loyal to her family, she couldn’t be trusted. Not by a dragon. Not by most shifters.
“Why are you interested in her?” Lucia leaned forward, both interested and curious.
“The Vases of Destiny might have been in the Bonetti family,” Ryland explained.
“Might?” Lucia laughed. “Oh, no, my dear boy. You have that all wrong. They definitely had the vases.”
“Had?” Caroline gasped.
Lucia nodded. “At one point, yes. But by the time Luigi was the head of the family, the whole world knew there were six vases with only one in circulation.”
Caroline stood and paced. “They had allsix? I didn’t believethat. People from all over the world have been obsessed with those vases for hundreds and hundreds of years. How could the Bonettis have allsix.”
“I’m not surewhythey had the vases, but almost two hundred years ago now, one of the Bonettis had one of the vases studied by an antiquities scholar. The vases were compared to Fabiola’s sketches and the Roman sources who discussed the vases.”
“And the vase was declared as one of the six,” Caroline guessed.
“Yes, that’s right.”
Ryland knew better than to explain Lucia had probably been around when this happened.
“It caused an uproar. The family admitted they had three and no more. But no one believed that.” Lucia gave him a meaningful look.
“Then that foolish man, Luigi, went and gave one away to a museum in America.”
“And Isadora took one,” Ryland said. “The museum was meant to get two, but only one ever made it.”
“Oh?” Lucia was genuinely shocked by this information. “Is that true? I certainly never heard of that.”
