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"That’s where we are now?" Luce asked, even though she knew that Daniel didn’t like to talk about how he still had not chosen a side
"You used to really like Ca the subject away from himself "For a handful of lifetimes on Earth the three of us were very close It was only much later, after Cam had suffered a broken heart, that he crossed over to Lucifer’s side"
"What? Who was she?"
"None of us like to talk about her You must never let on that you know," Daniel said "I resented his choice, but I can’t say I didn’t understand it If I ever truly lost you, I don’t knohat I would do My whole world would di to happen," Luce said too quickly
She knew this lifetime was her last chance If she died now, she would not come back
She had a thousand questions, about the woe quake in Daniel’s voice when he talked about Lucifer’s appeal, about where she’d been when he was falling But her eyelids felt heavy, her body slack with fatigue
"Rest," Daniel cooed in her ear "I’ll wake you up e’re landing in Venice"
It was all the permission she needed to let herself drift off She closed her eyes against the phosphorescent waves crashing thousands of feet below and flew into a world of dreanificance, where she could dip and soar and linger in the glory of the clouds, where she could fly freely, into infinity, without the slightest chance of falling
THREE
THE SUNKEN SANCTUARY
Daniel had been knocking on the weathered wooden door in the ht for what felt to Luce like half an hour The three-story Venetian townhouse belonged to a colleague, a professor, and Daniel was certain this reat friends ‘years ago,’ which, with Daniel, could encompass quite a span of time
"He must be a heavy sleeper" Luce yawned, half lulled back into sleep herself by the steady pounding of Daniel’s fists Either that, she thought blearily, or the professor was sitting in so wine over a book crammed with inco--their touchdown amid the silvery web of Venice’s canals had been acco of a clock tower somewhere in the darkened distance of the city--and Luce was overcoainst the cold tinit to wobble loose froht This sent the whole box slanting,Luce stureen canal, whose water lapped over the lip of the ue
The whole exterior of the house see in layers: fro off the sills in slireen mold, to the damp cement of the stoop, which cruht she could actually feel the city sinking
"He’s got to be here," Daniel
When they’d landed on the canal-side ledge usually accessed only by gondola, Daniel had promised Luce a bed inside, a hot drink, a reprise froh for hours
At last, the slow shuffling of feet thu Luce to attention Daniel exhaled and closed his eyes, relieved, as the brass knob turned Hingesopen
"Who the devil--" The older Italian les from his head He had sensationally bushy white eyebrows, and afroray robe
Luce watched Daniel blink in surprise, as if he was second-guessing their address Then the oldDaniel into a tight eoing to visit before I kicked the inevitable bucket," the man whispered hoarsely His eyes traveled to Luce, and he s theht over Lucinda What a treat"
His name was Professor Mazotta He and Daniel had studied history together at the University of Bologna in the thirties He was not appalled or bewildered by Daniel’s lack of aging: Mazotta understood what Daniel was
He see reunited with an old friend, a joy that was augmented by the introduction to the love of that friend’s life
He escorted therees of decay His bookshelves dipped at the centers; his desk was piled with yellowing paper; the rug orn to threads and splashed with coffee stains Mazotta set i each of them a cup of dense hot chocolate--an old e But Daniel barely took a sip before thrusting his book into Mazotta’s hands and opening it to the description of the first relic
Mazotta slipped on thin wire-fra to himself in Italian He stood up, walked to the bookshelf, scratched his head, turned back to the desk, paced the office, sipped his chocolate, then returned to the bookshelf to pull out a fat leather-bound tome Luce stifled a yawn Her eyelids felt like they orking hard to hold up so the inside of her palm to keep herself awake But Daniel’s and Professor Mazotta’s voices ued over the i
"It’s absolutely not a pane fro his hands "Those are slightly hexagonal, and this illustration is resoundingly oblong"
"What are we doing here?" Daniel suddenly shouted, rattling an a of a blue sailboat on the wall "We clearly need to be at the library at Bologna Do you still have keys to get in? In your office you must have had--"
"I becao, Daniel And we’re not traveling two hundred kiloht to look at" He paused "Look at Lucinda, she’s sleeping standing up, like a horse!" Luce griily She was afraid to start down the path of a dreaht meet Bill He had a tendency to turn up when she closed her eyes these days She wanted to stay awake, to stay away from him, to be a part of the conversation about the relic she and Daniel would need to find the next day But sleep was insistent and would not be denied
Seconds or hours later, Daniel’s arround and carried her up a dark and narrow flight of stairs