All Chapters of The Glass Rose : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Lucien’s POVThe helicopter hovered just a few feet above the tall grass of the fields near the Appian Way and the wind from the rotors was kicking up a storm of dust and dried leaves that made it hard to see the ground, so I had to grip the side of the door and slide out while my boots hit the uneven earth with a jolt that sent a fresh wave of fire up my spine. I reached back to help Alessia pull Matteo down from the cabin and the boy looked even worse in the moonlight than he had in the dark of the quarry because his skin was a waxy yellow color and his eyes were darting around like he was seeing things that weren't there. Nico didn't shut down the engine but he just leaned out of the cockpit and gave me a quick nod that looked more like a goodbye than a see-you-later, and then he pulled back on the stick and the helicopter banked hard to the west to draw the attention of the Roman air defense scanners away from our position."We need to get off the open road because the local car

Lucien’s POVThe smashed plastic of the camera lens crunched under my boot as I stepped away from the confessional and I could feel the back of my neck prickling because I knew that if that feed was live then a splinter cell of the Legacy Council was probably already coordinating a strike team to hit this chapel. I looked at Alessia and she had that look in her eyes again where she was deciding which of us was going to have to do the killing today, and I knew we couldn't just run because they would just follow us to the next hole in the wall until they finally cornered us with our backs against a dead end. We needed to flip the situation and find the blueprints for Francesco’s bunker before the city became a total graveyard, and I knew the only place that kept the old Cold War architectural records for the Roman elite was the private annex of the Vatican archives."We aren't going to wait here for them to kick in the door so we are going to use the back exit through the rectory and

Matteo’s POVThe world didn't look like it used to anymore because the colors were too bright and I could hear the sound of the wind rubbing against the roof tiles as if it were a physical weight, and every time I closed my eyes I saw patterns of light that looked like the maps in my father’s old study. I was sitting on the floor of the back room in the safehouse while Alessia and Lucien were in the kitchen whispering about the blueprints and the bypass device they had taken from the palace, and I could hear their heartbeats through the thin wooden door which made it hard to focus on anything else. My skin felt like it was too tight for my body and my blood was buzzing with a heat that was different from the fever I had at the quarry, and I found myself staring at a dead spider on the windowsill until I could see every tiny hair on its legs with a clarity that was terrifying."I need to find a way to make the noise stop because it’s like the whole city is screaming at the same time

Alessia’s POVThe morning sun was reflecting off the white stone of the Spanish Steps and the plaza was crowded with tourists who were laughing and eating gelato as if the world wasn't about to end in a few hours, and I felt like a ghost walking through a dream as I kept my hand on the hidden pistol in my coat while Lucien walked beside me with his hat pulled low. We had left Matteo in the care of Nico back at the penthouse and I could still see the boy’s pale face in my mind, but I had to focus on the task at hand because the bank vault was only a few hundred yards away and the Widow was waiting for her prize."Look at them just sitting there taking selfies by the fountain while the water in the pipes is turning into a death sentence, and they don't have a single clue that the air they are breathing is about to become a poison," Lucien whispered as he leaned toward me to avoid being overheard by a group of students passing by us."They think the green tint in the water is just algae

Alessia’s POVThe drive back to the penthouse felt like we were navigating a graveyard because the streets were so quiet and the only sound was the low hum of the engine and the distant, rhythmic thumping of military helicopters circling the city center, and when we finally stepped through the heavy reinforced doors I saw Matteo standing by the floor-to-ceiling window and looking out at the green glow of the Roman skyline. He wasn't shaking anymore and the gray tint had left his skin but there was something wrong with the way he was standing because he was too still and his eyes didn't even blink as he watched a flock of birds plummet toward the Tiber river, and when he turned to look at us his expression was so flat and disconnected that it made the hair on my arms stand up."You’re back and you have the book, so I suppose we can finally stop talking about the past and start focusing on how many people we have to kill to get into the primary pump room at the Forum," Matteo said and h