Page 74 of In the Garden of Monsters

This time it was he who reached out to touch me on the arm. His fingers were like ice. “One more, Julia. You know what you have to do.” He put a hand into the folds of his toga and pulled out a little pomegranate, held it toward me.

I stood, furious, and tried to keep my words measured. “No. I won’t.Buona notte, Maestro.”

I departed as calmly as I could. When I reached the hallway beyond the ballroom, I leaned against the wall, willing my heart to slow and my wits to return.

19

Lillian burst through the door, sliding to a halt and sighing when she saw me leaning against the wall. “Julia, what happened?”

I was so relieved to see her, to know I wasn’t alone in thecastello. She had said that she and Paolo wouldn’t let me out of their sight, and she hadn’t lied. “I’m fine. I just... I just couldn’t stay in there any longer.”

“You...you...didn’t eat a seed, did you?”

I gave a rueful chuckle. “If I had, I don’t think you’d be talking to me.”

Paolo appeared, shutting the door behind him.“Grazie a Dio,”he said, the slight worry lines on his forehead relaxing when he saw us.

“Come, let’s go before the others find us here.” Lillian took me by the elbow and propelled me down the hall.

“But the dancing just started,” I said, confused. “Gala will be furious if we leave now.” I was aware of how ironic that sounded coming from my mouth, considering I had been the one to leave first.

Lillian paused and put a hand on my forehead. “Are you all right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Non ti ricordi?”The worry lines had returned to Paolo’s brow.

“What are you talking about—what don’t I remember?”

“Julia, we’ve been dancing for the last two hours. You danced with Jack, with Paolo, and even with Dalí.”

That couldn’t possibly be true. Dalí would never have danced with any of us, nor would Gala have let Jack so much as lay a finger on me.

“That doesn’t make sense. I only had one dance with Ignazio, and a conversation with Dalí while I watched Gala and Jack and the two of you dance.”

Paolo and Lillian looked at each other, then back at me. “Ignazio left right after dinner,” Paolo said, furrowing his brow. “He wasn’t here for any of the dancing.”

“Come, let’s talk about this somewhere else.” Lillian led us up the stairs to our rooms.

Paolo’s room was the closest to the top of the stairs, so we ducked into it and Lillian locked the door behind us. The clock at his bedside showed that two hours had passed. My head spun with the thought of it. How could that be? I explained to my friends what had happened to me in thesala grande.

“Che pazzia,”Lillian said.

“Very crazy,” I agreed. “If these...beings...can manipulate what we are seeing and thinking, what chance do I have of avoiding all the seeds? Both Ceres and Ignazio seem to have it out for me.”

“You have managed so far,” Lillian pointed out. “You only ate that last seed because you wanted Ignazio to eat one. And sure, what you tell me about your encounters with Ceres sounds pretty scary. But I think if Ignazio or Ceres wanted to harm any of us directly, they would have by now.”

I reminded them about the fire.

“It could have been an accident,” Paolo said.

I shook my head. “No, now that we’re talking, I’m sure it was Ceres. I don’t know how I didn’t realize it before, but I’m sure of that now. The snake slithered right over my foot.”

“Why couldn’t that have been an accident?” Lillian asked.

The words came to my lips unbidden, yanked out of the recesses of my memory. “Serpents are sacred to Ceres. The myths tell of her yoking two huge snakes to her chariot. They even printed coins with this image on them in ancient times.”

Lillian raised an eyebrow. “I forgot you are a mythology geek. How oddly convenient.”

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