Page 53 of A Dangerous Bargain

“You want a workshop with me?”

Did we trick our way into the Medici house after all and eat mind-bending truffles? Did unearthing my most shameful secret knock my brain sideways? I can’t imagine why else Leonardo would say this. I can’t paint anymore. He knows this. Even if I weren’t facing an untimely demise, I’m the worst business partner imaginable.

And yet… there’s a curl of longing cresting in me like smoke from a snuffed-out candle.

Before Niccolo disappeared, before I had to put my family’s well-being ahead of my wishes, before I bargained away all of my days, opening a workshop had been my dream too.

A sudden movement at my side: an opening door. Leonardo tugs me from the path of a snorting horse that has no business being that big. My shocked face is reflected in its glassy eye. Sodding hell, it almost trampled me! Do the Medici not look before they unleash their monstrous beasts into the city?

“Gesù Cristo,” an oddly familiar voice grumbles. “Move!”

Two pages lead out the enormous bay. Astride it glowers a handsome, bored young man.

I just barely get a glimpse of the rider’s face before he gallops into the rain.

Shock kicks my mouth open. “It’s him!”

My brother.

Alive and just ahead.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

My heart slams against my breastbone, writing a frantic message: Niccolo is here. Niccolo is here. NICCOLO IS HERE!

My feet are flying. Leonardo falls behind, shouting. I don’t pause to hear what he’s saying.

The rain has stopped, and the narrow streets swell with people trapped inside until now. They just barely move aside for the racing horse. They definitely don’t move aside for me. A frantic scream tears from my throat, and the crowd becomes a blur of shocked faces. No one wants to stand betwixt a madman and what he’s chasing. It’s just enough to let me keep the rider in sight, to not lose him down a sharp corner.

The horse pauses at the end of a distant block. I get close enough to see it’s stopped in front of a grand house with an unfamiliar coat of arms hanging from its window.

Niccolo dismounts. He tosses the reins aside carelessly. A footman lunges to grab the horse’s reins before they hit the filthy street. Niccolo climbs the wide stone steps.

I throw myself after him in one last, desperate rush. My fingers catch his finely embroidered sleeve. “Volpone!”

Niccolo turns, eyes wide. The air catches in my lungs at the tiny heart-shaped divot on his cheekbone—a scar from a rock when we were little. I thud to the stairs on my knees, all my strength gone. “It’s you. It’s really you.”

He grips my wrist, the only thing keeping me from falling off the stairs entirely. His other hand is held palm-out to the footmen, motioning them back.

On his finger is a familiar ring.

A cluster of black garnets on a heavy silver band. I spent all of my first payment from Verrocchio on it. I couldn’t fathom the extravagance now, but at the time, it felt right to spend everything I had on the person I loved most. He helped me convince our hidebound father that going into a trade would be good for me. He knew I needed to leave Casa delle Volpi before our father broke me. I wanted Niccolo to know how much his support meant.

Niccolo blinks, his mouth slack with shock. “Who are you?”

The words don’t make any sense. “It’s… me. Your brother.”

A maelstrom of emotions swirls across his face—confusion, disbelief, and, finally, anger.

“I have no brother.”

He lets go. I sprawl into the street, staring with horror as he disappears inside and the doors slam in my face.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The next day I tell Verrocchio I’m sick so no one will bother me. Nothing makes sense.

Niccolo is alive, but he says he has no brother.