lawn and bent down to nibble at the base of a freshly clipped hedge. Cass stifled a laugh. Belladonna seemed so protective of her plants. Eating them was probably not permitted.
“I won’t tell,” Cass said out loud. She had never seen a deer before, and she was spellbound, mesmerized by the graceful creature.
The deer raised its head and looked at her. Just for a moment. Then it turned, shaking its white tail as it loped back toward the wooded area.
“Wait!” Cass cried out. She took a small step forward. She wanted to admire the deer some more, to rest a hand on its flanks.
There! The deer paused at the edge of the trees, watching her from one deep brown eye. As she drew near, it turned and fled into the patch of darkness. Cass raised her lantern and stepped into the trees, careful to stick to the small path that had been cut amidst them.
Feathery branches brushed against her dress. The blackness fell around her like a curtain. Her lantern sliced away only the tiniest sliver of night, but Cass sensed that the deer was gone. She turned around to head back to the party.
And then she saw the eyes.
Yellow ones. Shining like copper pieces in the dark. Not one pair. Three. They were moving. Circling between her and the safety of Villa Briani.
Something growled, a deep throaty noise. She backed away slowly, farther into the darkness. The yellow eyes followed her. A snarl. The sound of snapping teeth. Cass resisted the urge to run. She didn’t know what the eyes belonged to—dogs or something much worse—but anything on four feet would easily outrun her if she tried to flee.
She continued backing slowly away from the animals, clutching her lantern as if it were a weapon. The trees thinned out, and Cass could see by the moonlight what was hunting her.
Wild dogs. The leader, deep gray, had its hackles raised and its sharp white teeth bared. Two lighter dogs, more brown in color, crouched low behind it.
Her heart beat painfully in her throat. The dogs were blocking her path back to the party. The closest neighboring villa was dark. Would anyone even answer if Cass made it to the front door without being attacked? Quickly, she considered other options. The chapel was across the road, just beyond a short stretch of meadow, and church doors were always unlocked. She inched her way backward, careful not to move too quickly. She must not let them know she was scared; she must not let them think she was prey.
The leader of the pack snarled again. The other dogs advanced. Cass knew she was running out of time. The animals were flanking her on both sides now. Any second they would attack. If she surprised them, could she possibly make it across the meadow to the church before one of them closed its jaws around the back of her neck? Three more steps, then four. The little chapel was so close . . .
Just then, she noticed a change in the gray dog’s posture. It was crouched lower, as if it were getting ready to—
The dog propelled its muscular body into the air. For a second, its dark underbelly obscured the moon. Cass’s breath turned to glass. She flung her lantern at the dog. The metal bounced harmlessly off its hindquarters and the candle inside went out. But the dog, distracted by the fire, landed clumsily several feet from its target.
Cass was already running for the church doors. Damp grass tugged at her ankles. Without realizing it, she had started to scream. She heard snarling behind her. Panting. She could almost feel jagged white teeth nipping at her ankles. She launched herself at the arched wooden door, slamming into it with full force. It didn’t open.
No. Impossible. She banged violently on the door, but no one answered. The skin on her knuckles split. Where was the priest? Who had locked the door? Why couldn’t anyone hear her?
The gray dog lunged at her again. This time, all Cass could do was shield her face with her arm.
Sharp teeth gouged her flesh. She cried out in pain, balling her other hand into a fist and lashing out at the dog. Her hand connected with the side of its head and it released her with a yelp. Hot blood soaked the sleeve of her dress. Spots floated before her eyes, and then all she saw was the bristled underbelly of another dog. Jaws snapped shut around the biceps of her left arm. The first dog lunged again. Cass screamed as loudly as she could, the kind of scream that would have drawn fathers and soldiers and maybe God himself if any of them had been in attendance.
No one came.
The blood continued to darken her dress, and the summer air turned to ice.
The night went gray. Cass thought she saw Luca’s face floating above her head. His soft brown eyes considered her gently. No, it wasn’t Luca. It was Falco who looked down at her. The faces merged and mingled. Luca. Falco. Luca. Falco. And then the face became someone else’s entirely.
Someone else’s eyes. Someone else’s lips telling Cass to
Cass reached toward the face, but her hand closed around air, as if it were only a mirage looking down at her. Her breath caught in her throat. The face, the night sky, and the world slowly faded into nothingness.
nineteen
“The bite of a dog has been known to cause fevers, madness, and death.”
—THE BOOK OF THE ETERNAL ROSE
Reality returned in fragments. Cass’s vision was hazy. She tried to rub her eyes, but couldn’t. Both wrists were bound at her sides, and her left arm was throbbing. She thrashed, trying to free herself. White-hot pain surged through her, stealing away her breath.
She lay still, panting, trying to piece together what had happened, where she was. Memories teased at her consciousness: the dogs, their teeth sinking into her flesh, the warm blood soaking through her gown.
Bulky bandages now covered her left shoulder to her wrist. She tugged at her hands again, more gently, trying to work her right one through the circle of twisted cloth that tethered her to the bed.
“Help.” Her voice cracked. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Help!”
A figure moved toward her, blurry in the dark. “
His voice sounded familiar but Cass couldn’t place it. “Why have you tied me up like an animal?” She wrestled against her bonds again. “I demand that you free me this instant.”
“Calm down, Signorina,” the man said. He bent closer, leaning into the light.
Cass’s muscles went rigid. It was the doctor she had met at Palazzo della Notte. Her eyes flicked down to his hand. His fingers were currently bare, but he had worn the ring of the Eternal Rose the night she met him, hadn’t he? Her head was full of jagged thoughts, her whole life up to that moment a shattered mirror. Suddenly, Cass didn’t feel certain of anything.
“I am Piero Basso, Belladonna’s house physician.” He nimbly undid the knots holding Cass’s wrists down at her sides. If he recognized her, he made no sign of it. “You were delirious, screaming about the Devil, clawing at your own face. That is why I bound your hands.”
He massaged each of her wrists, and her skin stung as blood surged back into them. Leaning over, he lit an additional taper, and as he did, his features came even more into focus. It had been dark at that wicked party and Cass hadn’t seen much of him, except to notice the little things—his hair, his smile, his catlike movement—that reminded her of Falco. As he hovered just above her face for a moment, she saw that his skin was even darker than Falco’s—a deep bronze color that she had seen only on people from the southernmost islands of the Venetian Republic. Perhaps he was from Crete, or one of the tiny islets in the Aegean Sea. His hair was dark, almost black. And he had eyes to match—like two pieces of shining obsidian, so dark that Cass couldn’t tell where the iris
