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"Now that’s the way to start a ers traced the petals of the peony behind her ear
A slight weight suddenly tugged at her neck and when she reached up, her hands found a fine chain, which her fingers traced down to a silver locket She held it out and looked at the red rose engraved on its face
Her locket! It was the one Daniel had given to her on her last night at Sword & Cross She had kept it tucked in the front cover of The Book of the Watchers during the short ti about those days was blurry The next thing she re her to the airport to catch her flight to California She hadn’t remembered the locket or the book until she’d arrived at Shoreline, and by then she was certain she’d lost them
DanielHer eyes teared again, this time with happiness "Where did you--"
"Open it" Daniel smiled
The last tie of a former Luce and Daniel had baffled her Daniel said he’d tell her when the photograph had been taken the next tiether in California had been u with Daniel anylad to have waited, because when she opened the locket this tilass plate--Daniel in a bowtie and Luce with coiffed short hair--she instantly recognized what it was
"Lucia," she whispered It was the young nurse Luce had encountered when she stepped through into World War I Milan The girl had been er when Luce enuine Luce had ad the way Lucia kept staring at Luce’s shorter modern haircut, and the way Lucia joked that all the soldiers had a crush on Luce She remembered mostly that if Luce had stayed at the Italian hospital a little longer and if the circumstances had beenwell, entirely different, the two of thereat friends
She looked up at Daniel, bea at her as if he’d been punched
"What’s wrong?" She let go of the locket and stepped into hi her arms around his neck
He shook his head, stunned "I’ able to share this with you The look on your face when you recognized that picture? It’s theI’ve ever seen"
Luce blushed and smiled and felt speechless and wanted to cry all at once She understood Daniel completely
"I’o and check soured you’d need every bit of rest you could get, and you looked so beautiful asleep, I couldn’t bear to wake you up"
"Did you find what you were looking for?" Luce asked
"Possibly Mazotta gave me a clue about one of the piazzas here in town He’s mostly an art historian, but he knows his divinity better than any ondola’s low red velvet bench, which was like a love seat, with a padded black leather cushion and a high, sculpted back
Daniel sank the oar into the water and the boat slid forward The water was a bright pastel green, and as they glided, Luce could see the whole city reflected in the glassy wobble of its surface
"The good news," Daniel said, looking down at her from under the brim of his hat, "is that Mazotta thinks he knohere the artifact is located I kept hi until sunrise, but we finally raph"
"And?"
"As it turns out"--Daniel flicked his wrist and the gondola curved gracefully around a tight corner, then dipped under the low slant of a footbridge--"the serving tray is a halo"
"A halo? I thought only angels on greeting cards had halos" She cocked her head at Daniel "Do you have a halo?"
Daniel s
"Not in the golden-ring fashion, I don’t think As far as we can tell, halos are representations of our light, in a way that ht you saw aroundGabbe never told you stories about posing for da Vinci?"
"She did what?" Luce almost choked on her boel, of course, but according to her, Leonardo talked about the light that seemed to radiate fro her head"
"Whoa" Luce shook her head, astonished, as they glided past a pair of lovers inin a balcony corner
"It’s not just hiels that way since we first fell to Earth"
"And the halo we need to find today?"
"Another artist’s depiction" Daniel’s face grew somber The brass of a scratchy jazz record drifted out an openand see Daniel’s narration "This one is a sculpture of an angel, and much older, from the pre-classical era So old, the artist’s identity is unknown It’s from Anatolia and, like the rest of these artifacts, was stolen during the Second Crusade"
"So we just go find the sculpture in a church or el’s head, and sprint to Mount Sinai?" Luce asked
Daniel’s eyes darkened for a split second "For now, yes, that’s the plan"
"That sounds too sis around her--the high onion-do out theof another Everything seereen water with a kind of serene surrender