Chapter 19
Marcella spent the next hour pacing her hotel room and preparing for the meeting with Renata. She had to calm down, but not to the point that her anxiety would return. She needed her fire to get her through.
The blind anger she shoved down, like she had so many times before, hardened into steel. The coals that were left over from her hatred of Renata had been fanned back to life with one glance at Juliette's suffering.
This is my fault. They were punished because Adamo had been the one person in Forli brave enough to help me leave.
Marcella should have checked on him, made sure he was okay. Who else had Renata subjected to this kind of soul-destroying punishment? She needed to find out because she had never seen Adamo so defeated and afraid.
The city thrummed beneath her feet, seeping up through the old stones of the hotel. It was hurting in some way, and she needed to know what was causing it.
I'm here, she told it, not knowing how sentient the city was. She needed to sink into her magic and greet it properly, to learn what had happened to it in her absence, but that would have to wait until she faced Renata.
The dead were whispering to her, and she needed to go to the family cemetery and see her parents, no matter if Renata or anyone else tried to stop her. Marcella had felt the dead more keenly since removing her bracelet for the brief moments to show the Greatdrakes women her aura.
She had always struggled to balance how much she tuned into spirits because the dead would wake her at all times of the night, wanting to talk to her. They were invasive if she didn't have her protections on her.
Marcella was applying her eye makeup, lost in her spiraling thoughts, when she sensed the warm brush of Cosimo against the rose wall of her mind barriers.
She carefully lowered them to see what he wanted. In her mind's eye, he wasn't a man but a dragon. His scales were the same deep Tyrian purple as his eyes.
I can feel your distress. Are you okay? he asked her, frustration and worry coming through the bond.
Marcella kept applying her makeup, her hands shaking only a little at the intimacy of the feeling of him inside her mind.
I don't know what's wrong with the city, Cosimo. It feels broken. Julitte and Adamo are suffering because of me, and I don't know how many others. What if I caused more damage by leaving?
Cosimo growled, a low sound of pure frustration. None of this is your fault, tesoro mio. This is the witch and her son's doing.
I need to stop them, but I don't know how. I don't know the extent of the damage they have caused to the people here, she replied, fighting the urge to hug herself.
I find a sharp dagger between the ribs an easy solution in these kinds of situations, the dragon said with a touch of dark amusement.
Marcella paused. Kill them? I don't know if I could do that and not have it backfire on my magic somehow.
You wouldn't have to do it. I would do it to protect you from them and shoulder any weight that came with carrying their deaths, Cosimo replied.
Marcella put down her brushes and braced herself against the bathroom counter.
I don't know if that would be a good idea either. A part of my magic... Marcella hesitated. She couldn't tell him like this, and his daughters had promised not to share her secret.
What are you hiding, my pretty strega? You will feel better telling me all your secrets, Cosimo purred.
Keep your scaly nose out of my business. I would rather show you than tell you. Maybe then you will understand why killing them is not the best option. Marcella steadied herself. And I'm not your strega.
I will let you believe that if it makes you feel stronger for this confrontation.
The dragon's amusement was as rich as wine as it filled her mind. If he was in human form, Cosimo would be wearing that sly little smile of his that made her want to kiss him.
But that pull you have always felt toward my human side? That curiosity before we even met? That was our fates drawing together, inch by inch. I will wait for you as long as I need to. I have already been waiting for years, but make no mistake, Marcella Sforza, you will be mine.
With those ominous words, Cosimo retreated from her mind. Marcella drew her rose walls back up tight and tried to catch her breath.
"What was that about?" she asked her wide-eyed reflection.
Was that really how Cosimo's dragon felt about her? Or was it him too?
Cosimo had said that he was incapable of feeling anything too deeply for another person again, and yet the dragon had said he had been waiting years for her.
She rested a hand over her pounding heart, the traitorous organ reacting to his promise and certainty.
When Carlo tried to tell her they belonged together, she was physically repulsed. His type of possession was a cruel and toxic thing.
When Cosimo's dragon said it, it made her feel like she was precious. A thing to keep safe.
Dragons cherish our treasures. We don't toss them away. A shiver rocked through Marcella, just thinking about his words. What had happened yesterday to make him start saying things like that to her?
She knew the dragon wasn't lying about the connection between them either. It was palpable when they were in the same room, a magnetic pull that dragged them together. They couldn't stop themselves from flirting with each other, no matter what lines in the sand they had drawn.
"Get through the meeting. Find Maria. Then figure out whatever this change in Cosimo is. One thing at a time. He said he would wait," Marcella lectured herself in the mirror.
Marcella sprayed on perfume and put the final touches to her lipstick. She was dressed for war in the only way she knew how—in a killer dress, high heels, and lips the color of blood.
She didn't want to only look presentable. She wanted to be confident and powerful. She wasn't going to face Carlo and Renata as the same crushed woman who had left Forli.
A part of her was also big enough to admit that she wanted to knock that sly little smile off Cosimo's face. If he had thought she looked good that day in a pair of jeans, she was about to rock his world. That thought pleased her, and her mood lightened considerably.
He was a big, mighty dragon, but he was also a man, and Marcella wanted to rattle him as much as he had rattled her that day with his hot glances and possessive words.
They had always been rivals, and now she had a whole new way to drive him mad. Her smile widened. That dragon had been so irritatingly confident just now. He said he would wait for her. Well, she would certainly put his patience to the test.
There was a knock at the door a few minutes later. Marcella grabbed her purse and opened it, expecting Cosimo. What she found was Apollo and Lachlan, dressed to kill like she was. Lachlan let out a low whistle when he saw her, and Apollo's grin went impish.
"Are you trying to kill my father by wearing burgundy velvet? Because he is an old man, you know," he said and gestured at her to turn.
Marcella did and said, "Your father isn't old. He's only gotten to the stage where men get interesting."
Apollo shook his head. "He's a dragon, and you look like dinner. You're going to drive him crazy, so we'll have to make sure he doesn't do something rash like snapping your ex in half."
"I might just let him," Marcella said, trying not to think of her being Cosimo's dinner. She was having a hard enough time controlling her lustful urges around him.
They were quickly joined by the rest of the Greatdrakes children and their mates. They were all dressed to impress. The men and Bridget were in bespoke suits with their shirts the colors of their dragons, and Yelena and Charlotte were in dresses to match their mates.
"You will have to give me the name of your tailor. You all look incredible," Marcella said, beaming at them.
"We didn't want to embarrass you by not looking the part," Reeve replied. His usual easy boho style had also been polished up for the evening. "We want to be your dragon mafia bodyguards."
Marcella was still laughing when the door across the hall opened, and Cosimo came out. His eyes caught hers, and every comprehensive thought ceased and witty comment died on her lips.
The man sure knew how to wear a suit. It was black, and three-piece, with a shirt the same dark purple as his dragon. A silver tie pin, the shape of a Celtic dragon, gleamed on his black silk tie.
Cosimo looked at her like she was the only thing that existed. She felt like a very small rabbit faced with a hungry wolf. She didn't move as the other Greatdrakes cleared a path for him. He closed in on her and lifted her hand, his eyes never leaving hers.
Marcella's pussy clenched as his stubble and warm lips pressed to her knuckles and then the inside of her wrist.
"I… We should…" she stammered, embarrassed by her visceral reaction to him and still unable to form words through the haze of desire that was clouding her.
"We are going to be late," Valentine called from where they were hanging out in front of the elevator. "Be awkward with each other later."
"Nothing awkward about us," Cosimo told Marcella and held out his arm to her. She took it and tried not to turn her head to his shoulder just to get a better smell of his aftershave. She was so doomed.
"Speak for yourself. You are making me have very awkward thoughts right now," Marcella whispered. A heat that had been building low in her stomach for days ignited into a wildfire the moment he drew close.
"Awkward isn't the word I'd use when I look at you in that dress," Cosimo said, giving her a sideways glance that went from her face and down to the sweetheart neckline that showed off the tops of her breasts. Every feminine part of her tingled in response.
Marcella couldn't resist asking, "No? What words would you use?"
"Covetous," Cosimo admitted, his eyes all dragon. "And murderous."
"Wonderful," Marcella said, smiling up at him. "The night is off to a great start."