Starling (72 page)

taking my blood. I’m so weak, I can barely stand.”
Cass had felt the same way stuck in bed at Villa Briani. “Eventually you’ll recover.”
If they let you live long enough.
The girl exhaled. “But then they’ll just take more.” Her voice wavered, as if she were about to cry.
“Be strong,” Cass said. “We can figure out a way to get out of here.
We just have to be smart.”
“You’re dreaming,” the girl said. “There used to be another girl in
your cell. We worked together. She was full of great plans like you.
They took her out one day and she never came back. I know they
killed her. They’re going to kill us too.”
“We don’t know anything for sure,” Cass said soothingly. “I knew
of a man once, sentenced by the Senate to hang. He managed to escape the Doge’s dungeons. If he can escape such a prison, we can
escape from here.” But her words were full of bravado she didn’t feel.
She was trapped in a cage. Piero would come for her with his chemicals and his giant needle and syringe. She would be helpless.
Powerless.
“I heard that man drowned,” the girl said, but she fell silent.
Cass went to the front of her cell, pressing her hands to the bars
and opening her eyes wide. She scanned the small dark space, the
battered wooden table and chair. There was nothing she could use as
a weapon.
The outer room suddenly brightened. Someone was coming.
Someone with a candle. Cass heard voices. Ducking her head low,
Belladonna glided into the room, wearing a pair of low chopines to
protect the hem of her emerald dress from the damp stone beneath
her feet. Cass’s breath caught in her throat. Belladonna looked stunning, as she had in Florence, but the wavering candle made her hollow cheeks and pale skin appear hard and brittle. Her smile was
sharp enough to draw blood.
“Signorina Cassandra,” she said, her feline eyes reflecting the
dim light. “How lovely to see you again.”
“You’ll never get away with this,” Cass said. Her eyes dropped
from Belladonna’s face to her layered skirts and black lace cuffs.
“There are people looking for me.” She didn’t know if it was true.
Had Feliciana escaped? If so, would she seek out Falco or Luca and
tell them what had happened? Would Luca even care?
Of course he
would.
But he had looked so devastated the night he walked away.
“You mean your former handmaid?” Belladonna sneered. “She’s
not as loyal as you might think. She led you right to us.”
“You’re a liar,” Cass said. “Feliciana would never betray me.” But
inside she wasn’t so sure. If Feliciana still blamed Cass for what happened to her sister, who knew what she was capable of? If there was
one thing Cass had learned from all of her reading, it was that revenge often made monsters of people.
“So trusting.” Belladonna said drily. “I suppose you feel the same
about your artist lover. Thanks to him we almost caught you
yesterday.
”
Cass’s jaw tightened, but she tried not to show any emotion. Belladonna was obviously trying to break her spirit, and she would not
give her the satisfaction. “Falco wouldn’t betray me either. He loves
me. When I get out of here, I will prove to him that you are a bloodsucking witch, and he will no longer have anything to do with you.”
“You think so?” Belladonna asked. “I’ve changed his life in ways
that you could only dream of.” She paused for a moment to let that