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Daniel stared past her, the sunlit water reflecting in his eyes "We’ll see how sin farther down the block, then steered theondola rocked as Daniel guided it to a stop against a brick wall crawling with vines He grabbed hold of one of the ondola’s rope around it The boat groaned and strained against its bindings

"This is the address Mazotta gave e that spanned between romantic and decrepit "We’ll head up these stairs and head to the palazzo It shouldn’t be far" He hopped out of the gondola and onto the sidewalk, holding out his hand for Luce She followed his lead, and together they crossed the bridge, hand in hand

As they walked past bakery stand after bakery stand and vendors selling VENICE T-shirts, Luce couldn’t help looking around at all the other happy couples: Everyone here seeed the peony out from behind her ear and slipped it inside her purse She and Daniel were on a mission, not a honeymoon, and there would never be another romantic encounter if they failed

Their pace quickened as they turned left onto a narrow street, then right into a broad open piazza

Daniel stopped abruptly

"It is supposed to be here In the square" He looked down at the address, shaking his head in weary disbelief

"What’s wrong?"

"The address Mazotta gave me is that church He didn’t tell , with its triangle of stained-glass roseate s It was a e exterior and bright white trie dome "The sculpture--the halo--must be inside"

"Okay" Luce took a step toward the church, giving Daniel a bewildered shrug "Let’s go in and check it out" Daniel shifted his weight His face suddenly looked pale "I can’t, Luce"

"Why not?"

Daniel’s body had stiffened with a palpable nervous-ness His arhtly it could have been wired She wasn’t used to Daniel’s being anything other than confident

This was strange behavior

"Then you don’t know?" he asked

Luce shook her head and Daniel sighed

"I thoughtis, actually, if a fallen angel enters a sanctuary of God, the structure and all those inside it burst into flames"

He finished his sentence quickly, just as a group of plaid-skirted Ger toward the entrance of the church

Luce watched as a few of the to each other, slance their way

He fixed on Luce He still seemed nervous "It’s one of the el desires to reenter the jurisdiction of the grace of God, we must approach the Throne directly

There are no shortcuts"

"You’re saying you’ve never set foot in a church? Not once in the thousands of years you’ve been here?" Daniel shook his head "Or a teue, or a mosque Never The closest I’ve come is the natato-rium at Sword & Cross When it was desanctified and repurposed as a gym, the taboo was lifted" He closed his eyes "Arriane did once, very early on before she’d reallied herself with Heaven She didn’t know any better

The way she describes it--"

"Is that where she got the scars on her neck?" Luce touched her own neck instinctively, thinking back to her first hour at Sword & Cross: Arriane handing over a stolen Swiss Arive her a haircut She hadn’t been able to take her eyes off the angel’s strange marbled scars

"No" Daniel looked away, uncoroup of tourists were posing with their guide in front of the entrance In the ti, ten people had drifted into and out of the church without see’s beauty or its iels could never step inside

But Luce could

"I’ll go I knohat the halo looks like from your sketch If it’s in there, I’ll find it and--"

"You can enter, it’s true" Daniel nodded curtly

"There is no other way"

"No probleht here" Daniel looked reluctant and relieved at the same time He squeezed her hand and sat down on the raised rim of a fountain in the center of the square and explained what the halo should look like and how to remove it "But be careful! It’s more than a thousand years old and delicate!" Behind hi strea looks even remotely suspicious, run back out here and find me"