Chapter 16
EMBERLINE
Iwas heading for bed when I stopped at my brother’s door, holding my breath, listening.
Nothing.
Not so much as the sound of breathing, but it had been more than twelve hours since I’d last seen Luca. I pressed my palm flat to the door, torn between giving him his space and sisterly worry.
Worry won out in the end, and I rapped my knuckles hard on the wood, “Luca? Are you alive in there?”
“I’m fine, Em, just… sorry, I didn’t mean to sleep the whole day away. I guess everything just caught up to me.” Relief flooded my veins, turned my knees weak, and I sagged against the wall, closing my eyes.
No wonder, given he wasn’t used to fighting monsters. Although, were any of us?
“You missed dinner, but there might be something left in the kitchen.” I paused. “I need to see you, Luca. Can I at least come in?”
“Only if you want to see things no sister should ever see.” I heard a distinct yawn. A bed creaking. “Don’t worry, my stomach is grumbling enough I’ll take a shower in a minute and find some food. Then probably go straight back to bed, if I’m honest.”
“Okay, well… I expect to see you first thing in the morning.”
Fine.
My brother was fine, and I was worried about nothing. My imagination was working overtime. Luca was a grown-ass male, not the little brother I’d always felt needed protecting. I had to keep reminding myself of that.
A few minutes later, I slipped into my own bed and sleep claimed me faster than it should have.
One moment, I was staring at the beamed ceiling of the villa, listening to the distant crash of waves; the next, I was sinking into the warm embrace of a familiar darkness. When I next opened my eyes, cold, misty tendrils curled around my feet, and excitement shivered through me.
If I could find Emilia… maybe I could wake her up.
Which was a big, fucking ‘if’. This realm felt limitless, as if I could walk forever and never reach any sort of end. Still…
“Since I’m here, I might as well try,” I muttered, not the least bit bolstered by my pathetic pep talk. I headed off in a direction I supposed looked as good as any other. The ground beneath my bare feet was uneven enough that I stumbled after two steps, nearly faceplanting.
“Way to go, Emberline,” I grumbled, choosing my steps more carefully. “Try to stay upright, or you’ll embarrass yourself in front of the ghosts.”
After walking for what seemed like hours, I stopped. Reassessed. This place—my dream, or the dreamworld, whatever you wanted to call it—was unremarkable enough I could have been walking in circles. Locating Emilia in this landscape of nothingness was going to be impossible.
“Emilia?” My voice echoed strangely back, as if the mist swallowed up part of the sound.
And then I heard them.
Female footsteps.
Light and delicate, heading straight toward me.
I froze as the shifting mists parted ways, revealing not Emilia, but the twin edges of an ancient veil, full of holes, like the winds had worn it down to almost nothing.
And between the fluttering opening, more footsteps echoed from that dense, beckoning darkness.
“Well, at least I know where I am,” I murmured, searching the murk for signs of movement. “Mom? Dad? Is that you?”
If I couldn’t find Emilia in this endless smear of nothingness, I might as well make this trip useful. Blackwood’s cruel taunts had planted jagged doubts in my head, and I had questions.
Questions I only trusted my parents to answer truthfully.
Ottavia materialized out of the dark, beautifully delicate in a pale sundress, moving with a dancer’s grace and the easy confidence of the dead.
And why not? Nothing could touch her now, even the darkness recoiling from the faint aura of golden energy still clinging to her form, as though her soul couldn’t let go.
“Daughter,” she intoned, her hands twisting in her bloodied skirt. “Inside the circle lies danger. Remain outside the trap.”
“Can you be a little bit clearer?” I asked softly, wanting so badly to take her fluttering hands in mine. “I know you mean well with these warnings, but they never make sense until it’s too late.”
“Stay outside the circle,” she panted. “There is danger. The circle is danger. Danger, danger, danger.”
Enzo rushed out of the darkness, the smile falling off his face, his holey sweater that familiar, faded blue, coming close enough for me to scent the faint sweetness of cigar smoke.
“Calm, my love,” he gathered Ottavia close, wrapping her tightly in his arms. “Calm, now, it’s just our beautiful daughter, here to say hello.”
He narrowed that knowing stare on me. “Come back to visit us, have you?” A hint of a smile trembled on his lips. “You look too thin, Emberline. Are you eating? Are you in danger?”
“I’m… I need to know something. About… mom.” A sudden wind blew past me, carrying strands of mist through the opening, the silver swallowed by darkness, the second it crossed the threshold.
“Did you die in an explosion meant for father? A bomb planted in his office?”
“Paper,” she murmured softly. “A note to my beloved. You and Luca. The beach. A… family day. But…” She shook her head. “I opened the drawer and…” She released a shuddering breath, her golden aura flaring, then nearly dying out.
A strange quiet spread inside me, hearing the truth at last.
It took me a moment to pinpoint that quiet feeling for what it was.
Loneliness.
The loneliness of never having a mother. Of never sharing a single moment I could remember. Hold on to. Treasure.
Self-pitying tears bubbled to the surface, but they were worthless in this place, worthless in the grand scheme of things. Tears wouldn’t bring my mother back. And they sure as fuck wouldn’t help me get revenge on the bastard who’d taken her away from me.
This was a terrible truth, but somehow, not as terrible as not knowing at all.
My head flooded with emotion, eyes burning, tongue thick, throat closing off, I let the sorrow flood through my body in choking waves.
She’d been gone my entire life, and I didn’t think I’d ever missed her as badly as I did right now.
When she was standing right in front of me.
“Blackwood told Luca and me a story.” My voice shook so badly, I could barely force the words out. “He said you could have saved her, but you chose not to.”
My mother’s thin, pale fingers tightened around my father’s arm, holding on for dear life.
“Blackwood told you this story?” Enzo’s question held a sharpened edge. “Lord Cesare Blackwood?”
I nodded. “He was… he was trying to goad me, but he said you could have saved her after the explosion but chose not to. That…” I swallowed. “We could have grown up knowing our mother but were cheated of the chance.”
Enzo took a long time to answer, such pain flickering across his face I regretted even asking.
“The answer is yes. I could have kept her alive.” Enzo glanced at Ottavia’s blank expression. “Like machines could keep a corpse breathing or a heart beating or lungs moving. But they would never be truly alive, not in the way we think of living.”
“So, you let her go?”
Enzo patted Ottavia’s hand gently. “The explosion destroyed too much,” Father said quietly. “I could have gone to Emilia. Used blood magic to keep her with me. Forbidden magic to tether her to the world. Had I been a more selfish male, I would have. And I was… tempted.”
My stomach twisted at the conflict still so plain in his voice.
“But?”
His eyes met mine. “But I am not cruel. She would have survived as something broken. A half-life she did not deserve, not when she burned so bright. She begged me to let her go. So, I obeyed.” He kissed her hand. “Still the hardest thing I ever did.”
Mother smiled sadly. “Together now. Always.”
“Yes, my love, we’re together now. Always and forever.
And here…” Enzo lifted his gaze, and still, there was sadness.
So much sadness. “She is still not who she was. The explosion took… something away. She speaks, and thinks, in fragments, but she is mine to take care of, and in here, I can keep her safe.” He smiled sadly.
“Which was why, when Giovanni took my life, I did not mind so much. I only regretted I had to leave you and your brother behind.”
I sat with that for a moment, only half noticing the mist around my feet had turned black, the air I breathed tasted of sulfur.
“He has such darkness inside him now,” Ottavia muttered furiously, shaking her head from side to side. “A hole that will never be filled. Watch him as he changes. From gold to black, from good to evil, from…”
Darkness inside him. Panic hammered through me, a foreboding that strangled my lungs until I couldn’t draw air.
Was she talking about Luca? Or Giovanni? Or Blackwood?
And why did my mother’s words always sound like prophecies, and then—in some strange way—come true?
“That’s enough, my love,” Enzo scolded gently, catching her fluttering hands. “She’s been more agitated than usual. Is Luca hurt? Has something happened?”
“Blackwood happened. And his guards, and their soul-sucking demon monsters. And Giovanni has disappeared.” As far as Luca… well, telling my parents I’d dragged my brother into a gauntlet of death was not a conversation I wanted to have right now.
“Blackwood is dangerous in ways you cannot fathom. And my brother never truly disappears,” Enzo warned. “He only regroups and comes back stronger than before.”
“I know, I just…”
The shadows twining harmlessly around my ankles turned vicious, tendrils grasping my waist, my arms, my shoulders, digging into my skin like sharpened fingers. A choking blackness swept in around me, cutting me off from my parents.
I barely heard my father shouting my name or my mother’s maniacal screams. All I knew was panic as I was dragged forward.
Toward the opening to the Underworld.
I clawed at the shadows, and they clawed back.
My bare feet slid across the rough ground. I was nearly to the threshold, cold flooding through me, my blood crystallizing to ice, filming over my eyes until the world went hazy. This close, the veil roared like a storm unleashed, like thousands of distant voices screaming.
Terror crashed through me, and I tore at the shadows, my nails slipping through the inky shadows like they were water.
No, no, no… Fucking gods, I was going to die. I was going to…
A strong hand caught my arm, the palm rough with well-earned calluses.
The grip warm and unyielding.
Alive.
“You cannot fucking have her,” Nico growled into the abyss, his voice amplified back tenfold. “Emberline is mine. She belongs to me.”
Darkness erupted around him, even darker than the Underworld’s.
Darker than Death itself, and all I felt was relief.
For a moment, I was little more than the mortal bone in a surreal game of tug-of-war, then Nico planted his feet and hauled me back into the mists, the shadows shrieking as they shredded apart, raking invisible tracks along my arms.
The Underworld collapsed back into silence, and the dreamscape returned to shifting white mist. My breathing was ragged, our bodies crushed together, and I couldn’t let go, breath sawing in and out of my starved lungs.
Nico kept his arms around me, our hearts beating a jagged rhythm. “What were you thinking?”
I blinked up at him. “What?”
“You came here alone when you knew the risks.” His voice cracked sharper than a whip. “Death is waiting to claim you, Emberline, and every time you tempt her, the danger grows. You cannot come here again. You must stay away from your parents.”
“I had… questions only they could answer.”
“Your questions will keep for later.” His wild eyes searched mine, then he buried his face into the crook of my neck, breathing deep, as though he was grounding himself in my scent.
“Not these,” I argued softly. No, these questions rebuilt the ground I stood on, reordered my reality once again. Reaffirmed my uncle was even more of a snake than I ever suspected, and then there was Ottavia’s warning, which…
“Nothing is important enough for you to risk your life. Nothing.” His voice dropped. “Don’t you understand? I can lose you here as easily as I can out there. If you cross that threshold in your sleep, you die in the real world.”
The words hit me like a punch, and for a moment, neither of us moved.
Then Nico grabbed the back of my neck and kissed me.
Hard and desperate and ruined, he kissed me like it was the last thing he’d ever do, as if he was hanging on for dear life, unwilling to let me breathe lest I’d slip away for good.
My fingers tangled in his shirt. He was real in this place.
Somehow, among the mist and the shadows and my mother’s cryptic warnings…
When he kissed me, Nico was the most real thing I’d ever known.