Prince of Shadows

Rachel Caine

Chapters (13)

Also by RACHEL CAINE

ALSO BY RACHEL CAINE

The Morganville Vampires Novels

Glass Houses

The Dead Girls’ Dance

Midnight Alley

Feast of Fools

Lord of Misrule

Carpe Corpus

Fade Out

Kiss of Death

Ghost Town

Bite Club

Last Breath

Black Dawn

Bitter Blood

Fall of Night

Daylighters

Title page

A NOVEL OF ROMEO AND JULIET

RACHEL CAINE

NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY

Copyright page

New American Library

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 375 Hudson Street,

New York, New York 10014

penguin.com

A Penguin Random House Company

First published by New American Library,

a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

Caine, Rachel.

Prince of Shadows: a novel of Romeo and Juliet/Rachel Caine.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-698-13723-3

1. The star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet, told through the eyes of Romeo’s cousin, Benvolio, a thief known as the Prince of Shadows. 2. Love—Fiction. 3. Vendetta—Fiction. 4. Families—Fiction. 5. Verona (Italy)—History—16th century—Fiction. 6. Italy—History—1559–1789—Fiction. I. Title.

PZ7.C1198Pr 2014

[Fic]—dc23 2013033482

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Version_1

Also by RACHEL CAINE

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Quarto 1

Quarto 2

Quarto 3

Quarto 4

Quarto 5

TRACK LIST

Dedication

To Tybalt, and wonderful fellow author Seanan McGuire (aka Mira Grant, also), whose tweet about him led me to think she was writing a Romeo and Juliet–related story from his POV.

That made me think about this story, but then, of course, I couldn’t write it because she was already writing an alternate-viewpoint R&J story.

Luckily, it turned out she wasn’t writing that story at all, Tybalt was a cat, and I got to write mine. Hence: Prince of Shadows.

Thanks, Seanan. And Tybalt.

You both rock.

Acknowledgments

Besides the props already offered to Seanan McGuire and Tybalt the cat, I have to thank Melissa Marr for listening to this crazy idea and reading the first (very bad) draft of the original chapter . . . and still encouraging me in this risky venture. You’re the best, Melissa.

Lucienne Diver and Anne Sowards had so much faith in this project, and so much enthusiasm, and it wouldn’t have gotten done without their encouragement and support.