Starling (84 page)

girls in Florence accused of consorting with vampires. Siena. The
courtesan called Tessa. And now Minerva. So many senseless deaths
because of the Order.
Belladonna glided back into the room, her lips curling up into a
smile when she saw the second chalice of blood grow full.
Piero laid his syringe down on top of his notes. “It’s done,” he
said.
Minerva was ghost-gray now, her chin resting against her chest so
that Cass could see the pale part running through her dark hair. Her
fingers were gently curled, her body completely still.
“I will make you pay,” Cass said between her sobs. “Both of you.
All of you.”
Belladonna rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Signorina Cassandra. So
a few undesirable women have to die so that the most powerful and
learned people across the land can live forever. So what? If you could
control that overeager sense of right and wrong, you would see that
science requires sacrifice. You could work with us and live forever
too.”
Piero undid the straps, and Minerva’s lifeless body tumbled to
the damp ground. “A little help?” he called. The guard appeared
through the doorway, bent down, and grabbed Minerva’s legs. Piero
wrapped his arms around her torso, and the two men carried her
flaccid form out of the room.
“Undesirable?” Cass asked. “She was someone’s daughter. She
was—”
“A woman for hire,” Belladonna said plainly. “And the women we
culled from the parties, not much better. All of them attending willingly, hoping to be feasted upon by vampires or predatory men.
These are crimes, you understand? Why have them executed by the
Senate and see their bodies tossed in shallow graves if mankind can
benefit?”
“You’re mad.” Cass couldn’t even believe she was having this conversation. She turned away from the bars, eager to put distance between herself and Belladonna.
“Perhaps,” Belladonna said. “But I am not the one in a cage.
Think about it. You don’t have to follow in the footsteps of your parents.”
Cass spun back around. “What do you know of my parents?”
“Don’t listen to her, Cass,” Falco said. “You can’t trust her.”
But Cass barely heard him. For the last five years she had wondered about her parents. She had felt responsible for their deaths.
And when she found the pages torn from the Book of the Eternal
Rose, the pages that made it seem like her parents’ death had been
connected to their membership in a secret society, Cass had been
torn between denouncing them as monsters and seeing them as defenders of goodness—righteous agents who infiltrated the Order to
bring about its destruction.
Belladonna’s eyes seemed to glow in the candlelight. “So now you
wish to talk?”
“Tell me about my parents.”
“They came to Florence when my father was still alive, under the
guise of learning from him. Taking his knowledge back to Venice.
Foolishly, my father let them view the Book of the Eternal Rose.” She
scowled. “They stole pages. Names of our members and benefactors.”
“So you killed them,” Cass said.