Chapter 47
EMBERLINE
The villa’s sleek, modern infirmary smelled of herbs and something medicinal. Gia and the two healers—all older females with patient, unhurried natures—took one look at Luca and cleared the room of everyone who wasn’t essential. I stayed anyway, and nobody told me to leave a second time.
I sat on a cold metal chair, holding his good hand, not letting go.
A deep, silent guilt gnawed, biting chunks out of every story I’d ever told myself.
That I was a good sister. That I loved my brother. That I would honor the promise I’d made my father.
All lies.
I’d neglected my brother these past months.
Left him to fend for himself, to swim in shark-infested waters he hadn’t been trained for, to navigate daily life with our monstrous uncle without being fully prepared for the danger.
Luca might be my twin, but he’d never been equipped for this life, while those years I’d trained and studied made all the difference between surviving and… suffering.
And now, he was going to… I shoved that thought to the back of my mind with every bit of strength I had left.
Luca wasn’t going to die.
He was my little brother, for fuck’s sake. By three whole minutes.
Shame washed over me again in great, gagging waves. My little brother. And I’d failed him when he’d needed me most.
I’d sensed something was wrong. Seen Luca’s slow deterioration for myself, felt his inner pain inside my own heart, and ignored all the signs. But even more… Ottavia had warned me this was happening, hadn’t she?
He has such darkness inside him now… a hole that will never be filled… watch as he changes from good to evil…
My own mother had given me one of her cryptic warnings, and as usual, I’d deciphered it far too late to be of any help.
Valeria stood in a corner with her arms crossed while her healers worked—spells and ice packs to get his temperature down, potions and human antibiotics for the infection. Magic and medicine, mixed together, and right now, I wasn’t sure which I trusted more.
Every time they lanced the wound, more of that blackened blood oozed out, a gag-inducing reek filling the room. As though there was no end to the poison.
Luca surfaced twice while they worked, confused, in pain, and incoherent.
The first time, he slipped right back into unconsciousness; the second, his frantic gaze found mine and focused, hand squeezing with inhuman strength, mouth working, trying to form words.
“It’s all right,” I soothed, trying to sound reassuring. “You’re going to be okay, Luca. The healers are the best. They’ll get the infection under control, and you’ll be fine. I’m here. Don’t try to talk.”
He shook his head. Tried again.
“Warn… you. Ne..ssss,” he got out. His voice had the quality of something dragged up from an abyss—throat scraped raw, the sound barely there. “Rooom.” His pupils shifted wildly from side to side, fingers squeezing mine with frenetic strength.
“You’re in the infirmary,” I glanced at the black crawling up the side of his neck and tried not to panic. “But when you’re better, you can go back to your room.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, head whipping from side to side.
“Nooo, Em!” He arched up off the pallet, tendons straining from the effort.
The healers pressed him back down, giving me a stern look.
“Nesss…nessss…ttt.” His gaze went unfocused, the thread of sound slipping from his lips turned into air as his head flopped to the side.
“He needs his rest.” Gia laid her hand on my shoulder, firm and resolute, enough I didn’t argue. “It will take all his strength and all our magic to fight this infection, and speaking only weakens him. And upsets him.” She gave me a disapproving frown.
“This dark magic is very specific and spreading from a contact wound. A wound that was allowed to fester for days. The infection is in his bloodstream, and may have caused brain damage.” Her frown softened into a sad, sympathetic smile.
“At this stage, all we can do is try to contain it.” A pause.
“But we cannot be sure he’ll pull through. We’ll know more by morning.”
Morning.
By morning, my twin could be gone.
Fear bloomed cold, stark, and real in my chest.
Hope… shriveled away like flowers beneath the frost.
All the time I thought we’d share—weddings to our respective lovers and even our children playing together—would never happen. I might only have these few hours left with Luca. Hours I never had with father. Or my mother.
I looked at the door, then my brother’s unconscious face.
I was supposed to be inside La Sala right now, carving through Blackwood’s forces, weakening my uncle’s grip on the Dynasty. Instead, here I was, facing the proof of my failure. Watching my brother… die.
“You should stay with him,” Dante said gently from the doorway, where he’d obviously heard every word. “Nico and I will handle whatever’s waiting at La Sala. If we have to find another soldier to fill your spot, that’s what we’ll do.”
“They won’t know the layout,” I said automatically. “They won’t understand what they’re even facing until they’re through those doors.” And then what? Would they freeze? Or worse, get in the way?
“I need to go. I need to be there.”
And I needed to be here, too.
“Let me stay with him,” Valeria murmured softly, leaning in to adjust the edge of the sheet, her long, delicate fingers trembling. “Watch over him until you return. I won’t leave him alone, I swear.”
I looked up at her gratefully, wondering how I could have so badly misjudged her.
From the anguish on her face, clearly, she cared—really cared—for my brother.
“What are his chances?” my husband asked Gia, going straight for the marrow, like someone who’d seen death so often he’d lost all his tact.
The healer stared down at Luca. “If something doesn’t change soon, he won’t see the dawn,” she murmured, not looking at me or Dante but at Valeria. “This type of infection is nothing we have seen before. If we knew more about what caused it…”
Valeria crossed her arms over her chest and turned away, her breathing ragged.
“I’ll find Emilia and bring her here,” Gabriel said, already moving for the door.
“You can’t,” I said miserably. “She needs to be with her priests; we need their magic for the…” I caught myself before I revealed all our plans. “We need her focused.”
“I think we can all agree Luca is more important, Emberline.” Dante’s hand cupped the back of my neck, his grip so warm and certain, I bit back a sob.
“The mission is important, too.” I could barely get the words out. “We can’t just abandon everything we’ve put in place because of my brother. There’s too much at stake.”
Luca was only one person, and our uncle was waging a bloody vendetta. Who knew how many people would die if we called tonight off?
“Just a short delay,” Nico said gently, crouching down beside me so he could peer up into my eyes.
“Until we know for sure he’ll pull through.
Our war can wait one more day, but you should be here for your brother.
He needs you right now, Emberline.” He paused, pity glimmering in his somber expression.
“If I know one thing, it’s that having someone you love with you makes all the difference. Between stepping through the threshold… or staying here.”
He kissed the top of my head, and I nodded, tears spilling down my face, my brother’s hand limp in mine, feeling like an utter failure.
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell them we couldn’t delay, to rise from this chair, tell the healers to do what they could, and go to face our enemies…
But Luca’s chest was rising and falling, and right now, I was afraid if I didn’t keep watching, it just might stop.