The young woman blinked, her blue eyes suddenly focusing on his face. “What? What are you doing?”
“Cara.” Raven pulled her away from William. “We’re here to see Father Kavanaugh.”
“Good.” Cara rubbed her eyes and yawned. “I can’t believe we got here so quickly. I must have fallen asleep.”
The sound of boots striking cobblestones pounded in the distance.
A century of soldiers dressed in black uniforms entered the piazza from the left side of the basilica. The soldiers wore crucifixes around their necks and carried swords.
“Black robes,” the Prince spat.
Cara snorted. “What’s with the army? I thought the Church was pacifist.”
“Perhaps you should ask your priest about that.” The Prince’s voice was cold.
“Whatever.” Cara rolled her eyes.
The soldiers marched toward the border and spread themselves out, one hundred meters inside the line. A lone figure emerged, walking in the direction of the Florentines.
Cara tugged on her sister’s hand. “There’s Father. Let’s go.”
“Approach slowly,” the Prince commanded.
Raven limped with Cara toward the border, while the Prince hovered behind them. A few feet from the line, Raven stopped. “I’m going back to Florence with William. You go ahead.”
“What?” Cara’s voice grew shrill. “You have to come with me. We have to find Dan!”
“Father will help you. I can’t leave William.” She pulled her sister into a hug and kissed her cheek. “I’ll see you soon.”
“You have to come with me,” Cara wailed. “I need you.”
Raven looked toward the priest, who stood fifty meters from the line. “Father will help you.”
“You can’t leave me.” Cara grabbed Raven’s arm and pulled her closer to the border.
William clung to Raven’s side, his hand ghosting over her elbow.
Just before they crossed the line, Raven planted her feet. “This is as far as I go.”
“Don’t you care about Dan? Don’t you care about me? I came all the way from Florida. You can’t ditch me for your boyfriend.” Cara stepped nimbly across the line formed by a band of white between the cobblestones. “Come on.”
Father Kavanaugh strode to Cara’s side and embraced her as six Curia soldiers closed ranks behind them.
Behind Raven and the Prince, the Florentines closed ranks as well.
Father moved to the border and extended his hand. “Come, Raven.”
“No.” Raven glared. “I explained on the phone what was going to happen. I need you to look after Cara, but I’m not coming.”
Next to her, the Prince growled. “She is my pet. I will not surrender her. The Roman supports this decision.”
Ever so carefully, the Prince turned his head to look at the Roman guard.
The priest followed his gaze.
At that moment, a fine mist appeared, lifting as if from beneath the city streets. The mist rolled down the road that led to Vatican City and began to approach the border.
“Is this your doing?” The priest addressed the Prince, pointing to the fog.
The Prince remained impassive.
“Raven.” Father turned his attention back to her. “Come here, my child.”
She grasped William’s elbow, leaning on him as she took the weight off her injured leg. She switched to Italian. “Maximilian killed Dan. I saw it happen. Cara doesn’t believe me, and when she realizes what’s happened, she’ll be devastated.”
“Maximilian has been dealt with,” the Prince interjected, also in Italian.
Father glanced at Cara, who stood at his side, watching. He spoke to Raven in Italian. “We have the body. He will be prepared for burial once the autopsy is complete. Come with me now before something else happens.”
“No,” Raven repeated.
The mist had grown thick, standing as tall as William and cutting the Florentines off from the Roman guard that stood nearby. But it also shielded them from the Curia snipers.
Surprisingly, the fog traveled as far as William and Raven’s backs, but did not venture to the border of Vatican City.
The priest withdrew a glass vial from his pocket and held it aloft. He fixed his eyes on the Prince’s even as the fog swirled behind him. “You have no power here. I command you to release her.”
The Prince snarled and bared his teeth, but did not retreat.
“Raven? What’s happening?” Cara took a few steps in her sister’s direction.
Father Kavanaugh gestured to two of the black robes, and they marched forward. They took hold of Cara’s arms and began to escort her toward the basilica.
“Let me go!” Cara’s voice lifted into a panicked cry. “Raven, help me.”
“What are you doing?” Raven’s anguish was directed at the priest. “Stop them! Don’t let them hurt her.”
“Come now.” Father leaned across the line.
William’s arm snaked around Raven’s waist, his mouth finding her ear. “It’s a trap.”
“Raven! Help!” Cara shouted.
William tightened his grasp and continued to whisper, “If you follow her, I shall follow you. And they’ll kill me.”
“Then do something,” she pleaded.
The Prince’s gray eyes swung to the white-haired man who stood in front of them. “We came to you in peace. We surrendered the human at your request. This is how the Curia treats their charges?”
“Give me Raven, and we will have peace.” Father leaned farther across the line, his hand mere inches from hers. “And send your cursed fog away.”
“It isn’t mine,” the Prince remarked grimly, looking the priest squarely in the eye.
Raven watched as the soldiers continued to drag her sister toward the basilica. She saw Cara struggle, her shouts and screams echoing across the piazza.
“I trusted you!” She pushed Father Kavanaugh’s chest. “Let her go. Right now!”
The priest grabbed her arm and began to pull.
William had her by the waist. He planted his feet.
A tug of war ensued, with Raven’s body forming the rope.
The priest began reciting words in Latin, waving the relic he held in his other hand.
Both Curia and Florentine soldiers approached, keeping a healthy distance but wielding their weapons. The fog continued to swirl around the Florentines.
“Let go,” Raven whispered, her eyes moving to the priest’s. “I’m not coming with you. If anything happens to Cara, you’ll regret it.”
Father Kavanaugh ignored her, his gaze focused on the Prince and the relic’s obvious lack of effect.
It was at that moment, quite by chance, that the priest lowered his eyes and saw William’s foot resting over the line.
Chapter Twenty-Four
IN A MOVE SO QUICK it could not be detected by human eyes, the Prince drew his foot back into the surrounding fog.
He pried Raven’s arm from the priest’s grasp, his body a blur, and shuffled her behind him.
Father Kavanaugh froze.
“You asked for the lives of two humans.” The Prince glanced behind the priest to see Cara being taken up the stairs that led to the massive doors of the basilica. “I delivered one of them to you, unharmed and unspoiled. The other belongs to me.”
“Impossible,” the priest whispered, fear causing his face to pale beneath his white beard.
“The Roman supports me, the Prince of Florence, and the assertion of my right to keep the pet of my choice. You have our answer.” The Prince lifted Raven into his arms and disappeared into the fog, the Florentines following hard on his heels.
Father Kavanaugh seemed to shake himself out of his reverie. “Raven! Raven!”
The Prince and his soldiers flew in the direction of the
Tiber, the fog accompanying them. Once they reached the river’s edge, the fog lifted. They turned north and raced out of the city.
Chapter Twenty-Five
FATHER JACK KAVANAUGH paced the hallway outside the Superior General’s office in the Vatican, praying nervously.