Chapter 28
You came.’
The words tumble out, glaringly obvious, but I’d stopped believing – in tonight, in Leo, in Rebel. I’d been so sure the boy behind the screen wasn’t the boy in front of me that I slammed every door between us … without even letting him knock … or call pope oeeee.
Someone bumps into my shoulder. Leo and I are just standing in the middle of the dance floor staring at each other, dumbstruck, totally in the way.
‘Your dad will be glad to see you. He’s been telling everyone you’re helping out at a gallery tonight.’
Leo rolls his eyes, then turns serious. ‘What about you? Are you glad?’
The question catches me off guard and I hesitate.
‘Because I didn’t come here for the party,’ he says quietly. ‘I came for you.’
Standing with him here, dressed as Rebel, is like … I don’t know, catching a selkie pulling on its skin, the human and the seal suddenly the same being, like Leo and his online self.
My heart’s still trying to catch up when he says, ‘I was thinking we could get out of here … I have a surprise for you.’
‘Sure you don’t want to tell your parents you’re here? Your dad—’
He doesn’t let me finish.
‘My dad will parade me around and involve me in stuff I don’t want.’
I bite my lip. ‘It’s just … my bag’s on my seat. And people will notice if I suddenly disappear. Nadia and Alessandra …’
‘The girl who fooled her school, her parents and the InterSTEAM organizers can’t come up with an excuse to leave a party?’
I gasp. ‘I can’t believe you called me out on that.’
He grins. ‘Sorry, couldn’t resist. Tell them you’re coming down with the same bug I have.’ He leans in, voice dropping. ‘Then go to the back of the palazzo on the ground floor. Through the archway on the left, past the stone wellhead … I’ll wait for you there.’
Then he’s gone, melting into the crowd like a proper Venetian mask-wearer, leaving me staring after him, wondering what a stone wellhead even is.
I tell my friends I’m leaving first.
‘And this has nothing to do with the boy in the paint-splattered mask?’
Nadia definitely has an eyebrow raised behind her mask.
‘Nope,’ I say, suddenly very grateful for my own.
‘Mmh.’ Alessandra taps her chin. ‘Looked familiar, that’s all … just call if you need us, OK?’ There’s nothing in her tone but genuine concern, and I decide to add goodbye cheek-kissing to the hellos.
My next hurdle is Veronica. She’s at the far end of the room, locked in what sounds more like an argument than a conversation with Martino.
My shopping-list Italian is expanding by the day – enough to pick up on Martino complaining that Silvia doesn’t understand his vision for the school, but not enough to follow the whole thread.
I cough lightly to catch her attention, then ham it up so it sounds like I might actually be ill.
‘Evie!’ Her smile is a little too bright. ‘You’re not well?’
I mumble something about a headache, then grab my bag and follow Leo’s directions across the ground floor: archway on the left, past the carved stone thing in the middle of the courtyard, which I’m hoping is a wellhead.
From there, another corridor opens up, and lowered voices carry along the tiles.
One of them is Leo’s. The other I recognize just as quickly.
Jacopo.
They’re in a shadowy little vestibule at the end of the passage.
‘What’s going on?’
‘He wants to come,’ Leo says.
‘He doesn’t want me to come,’ Jacopo counters.
At this rate my fake headache’s going to be real. ‘Come where exactly?’
Jacopo’s grin is pure mischief as he swings open the door behind him. Cool night air rushes in, carrying the faint lap of water. And there it is – a real live gondola floating outside. OK, so not alive alive – but still. Wow.
Jacopo puffs up with pride. ‘It’s my dad’s. I can row it for you. Give you the full romantic experience. You won’t even know I’m there.’
Yeah, right. ‘Why don’t you swap with Leo instead?’
‘So Leo rows and you and I …?’
‘No!’ I press my fingers to my temples. ‘I mean, take Leo’s costume and go and enjoy the party.’
Jacopo scowls. ‘This is my thanks for bringing you together?’
Leo and I exchange a look.
‘Nadia’s upstairs,’ I try. ‘She’s wearing a dress that makes a statement about recycling.’
Jacopo brightens instantly. ‘Bon! This I want to see.’
He snatches Leo’s robe and mask and disappears in a swirl of velvet.
Leo watches him go. ‘What’s that all about?’
I smile. ‘Just a hunch.’
Getting into the gondola is not a graceful process. Not in this dress. I can’t even see my feet, let alone work out where to put them. I’m in danger of becoming an actual kelpie, sinking to the watery depths, but if these skirts get waterlogged, I’ll need a crane to haul me out.
Somehow, we manage. I tuck myself into the red velvet loveseat at the back, close to where Leo takes the oar. A little brass lantern glows at the prow, making the gold trim glint.
It’s the wee hours of the morning now. Shuttered windows, empty streets and black water.
I don’t know if we’re silent because everything else is, or if there’s just too much to say.
Until he appeared beside me at the ball, I hadn’t seen Leo since I froze him out and stomped off with Jacopo to get my dress.
I’ve had hours to replay my reaction to his confession. None of it looks great from my side. And there’s nothing to hide behind now.
No masks. No personas. Just me. Just him. It’s terrifying … but I don’t want it to stop, because this is the first time we’ve really been ourselves, more than we have been with anyone else. Ever.
A wide stone bridge arches low ahead and Leo adjusts his grip on the oar, steering us towards it at an angle that makes no sense at all.
The curved metal at the front of the gondola flashes in the dark as the bow swings. The boat rocks, wood creaking as we start to slide under the bridge. I squeeze my eyes shut.
There’s a dull thud beside me, close enough to make me flinch.
Then I hear Leo’s voice, closer than before. ‘You might want to look now.’
He’s sitting beside me, watching me – not nervous, exactly, more like he’s waiting for something. His knees are angled awkwardly as he keeps the oar wedged between the gondola and the canal wall, holding us still.
He gives me his best face-transforming smile. ‘I mean look up, silly.’
So I do. And I think I’ve found the reason Leo wasn’t in his room last night. And why he skipped school today.