The Serpent and the Lily

Florence, 1576. Beneath the dazzling artistry of the Medici court, a venomous plot threatens to shatter the city’s fragile peace. Lady Isabella de’ Medici, a brilliant alchemist stifled by the gilded cage of her noble lineage, yearns for a life beyond courtly formalities. Her secret experiments with forbidden knowledge offer a dangerous solace, a flicker of freedom in a world defined by duty.
When Venetian spy Marco Bianchi arrives in Florence to recover a stolen Da Vinci invention — a weaponized alchemical formula — their paths collide amidst the city’s whispered secrets.  Isabella’s intimate knowledge of the court becomes invaluable to Marco, while he ignites a dangerous flame within her, a forbidden attraction that blossoms amidst the cypress-scented shadows of the Boboli Gardens.
But their investigation unearths a conspiracy far more insidious than they imagined, a plot targeting not only the stolen formula, but the very heart of Florence’s artistic soul.  Michelangelo's unfinished masterpieces, priceless treasures of the Renaissance, are in the crosshairs of a traitor lurking within the Medici family itself. Isabella's alchemical knowledge becomes the key to unraveling hidden messages and exposing a web of betrayal reaching the highest echelons of power.
As Isabella and Marco delve deeper, they are pursued through sun-drenched piazzas and shadowed canals, their every move scrutinized.  Their fragile alliance is tested by Cassandra Reed, a Venetian courtesan whose enigmatic charm masks her own agenda. Is she a valuable ally, or a manipulative player with secrets as dangerous as their own?
Amidst the swirling revelry of a grand masquerade ball, Isabella and Marco must expose the traitor and save Florence’s artistic legacy.  But their forbidden love has made them vulnerable, their shared secrets a weapon that can be used against them.  In a heart-pounding climax of pyrotechnics, sword fights, and unveiled betrayals, Isabella must make a heartbreaking choice: loyalty to family or the fate of the city she loves.  One wrong move could cost them everything.