I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t afford to cry, couldn’t sink into the bitter pain of losing my chance to be with him. It wasn’t fair, for him to say that now.

“I’m going to try to raise this thing.” I forced the words out through a stiff jaw. “You lift it, too.” I turned to the winch, half-blind with unshed tears, and all but fell on the handle.

I was too weak from the poison to raise the portcullis far, but Marcello and the children only needed a foot or two to slide out beneath it. Still, by the time I locked the winch in place, I was gasping and shaking. I slumped against the wall, spent.

“We’re through,” Marcello called up from below, after an interval of excited child noises and scrambling. “I’ll get the children to safety, and I’ll be back. Wait for me.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” The words rasped out too thin. I doubted he heard them.

Then they were gone. The last sounds of children striving fruitlessly to be stealthy faded, swallowed by stone walls and distance.

I was alone. Only death remained, close and patient, its silent wings folding around me.

“I think I might love you too, Marcello,” I whispered.

Cold seeped through my back from the stone wall I sagged against. It was easier to keep my eyes closed and to focus on breathing, on stilling the tremors in my limbs. But even with the poison taking full hold, my mind kept running, mad as a dog with its tail on fire.

I had to believe Marcello would get the children safely to Domenic, and that Domenic could convince the Ardentine court of Raverra’s innocence and take control of the River Palace back from Lady Savony. But that would take time—hours during which Savony still had free rein in the city. And I had no inkling of what had happened to Zaira, save only that Ignazio had seemed sure he could secure her cooperation.

There was still too much that could go wrong. Ignazio’s hired murderers could catch Marcello and the children. Zaira could burn the city down, especially if she found herself suddenly released by my death. The doge could decide Ardence had gone too far, or that nothing mattered if the jess still wasn’t returned, and attack the city despite all our work. Lady Savony could have Domenic killed. I couldn’t die now—not with so much left to do.

In cruel mockery, pain opened like a flower in my middle, a sharp twinge building with alarming rapidity until it doubled me over.

The cramps had begun.