“On top of that, I hear you got the Cornaro heir shot at.” The disbelief in Vasante’s voice could have withered roses. “You do realize if La Contessa’s only daughter gets killed in our care, she’ll have us executed within the week.”

Marcello’s voice was strained. “I’m aware. Believe me.”

Why did all my friends think my mother would kill them?

“You do what it takes to keep them both out of trouble, Lieutenant. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, Colonel.”

That sounded final. I retreated to my bench and sat down, heavy with the impossibility of Zaira “playing nice” within a month and the implied mortal consequences should she fail to do so. Mere seconds later, Marcello opened the door and reemerged, alone.

“Is everything all right?” I asked him.

He mustered a smile. “Of course.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

He shivered as if the cold of the air had finally reached him. Then he slumped on the bench beside me, face in his hands. “I can feel everything I’ve worked for collapsing around me,” he said softly. “I don’t know how to fix it. I got you shot at. I let Zaira run away, but worse, I can’t win her trust no matter what I do. I’m going to lose my position and go home in disgrace to my father’s scorn. And fail to save Zaira from herself. And maybe get you killed, too.”

I stared at him a moment in silence. The burden of his words lay heavy on me, dragging me down along with the poison and the long night and all my days of fearing fire.

But impatience licked up in me like a candle flame, a spark of scalding light. “Hmph. Well, if you think like that, of course you will.”

Marcello lifted his head, a stunned look in his eyes.

“We’ve failed to make any progress with Zaira, yes. That just means we’re doing this wrong. We need a new tactic.”

Marcello spread his hands. “Like what?”

“I don’t know yet. But we’ll think of something.” A group of soldiers passed through the hall, shucking off their uniform coats on their way to bed, grumbling good-naturedly about the chill in the Tallows. They must have been some of the ones helping us search for Zaira. “She’s angry at being stored here like a weapon in the armory; I can’t blame her for that. Especially after we brought her back here against her will again, when all she wanted was to find her dog.” The faint glimmer of an idea started to form in the back of my mind. “If we want to be her friends, we have to start treating her like one.”

Shadows still haunted Marcello’s face. “Kindness may work wonders, over time. But even if there’s hope for her, that doesn’t change the fact that I endangered you.”