Chapter 52 #2
An invisible force hit me like a wall—not pain, just presence, a vast coldness spiking into the space behind my temples, expanding until the pressure turned agonizing, until I thought my skull would burst.
The scream tore up my throat before I could stop it, and I collapsed, knees hitting the floor with an impact that sent pain rippling up through my hips.
My spine.
“Get the fuck out of her.” Dante’s voice boomed with the ifrit’s otherworldly cadence. The temperature in the room spiked until the air choked, until ash and spark swirled amongst the darkness and flame.
“You’d have to kill the boy to get me out,” Blackwood said pleasantly. “Could you really burn your wife’s brother to save her? We both know she’d hate you for it.” He paused, and I managed to lift my head through the pain.
“Dante.” My voice came out thin. Breathless. “Please. Don’t.”
“He’s hurting you. I have to stop him.”
Swirling flames ate through Dante’s clothes, his scars glowing like veins of lava. His face was expressionless, focused wholly on Luca, and there… panic flashed across Luca’s face.
No, that was Blackwood’s panic as he realized that while my husband would obey my wishes, the demon was a whole other story.
Yes, that bastard would burn my brother to a crisp and not lose a second’s sleep.
“Don’t.” I pressed my hand against the cold marble floor and tried to lift my head. “Don’t you dare hurt Luca, or I will kick your demon ass both here and in the afterlife. I swear to all the gods I will.”
But Lord Blackwood must have realized the truth of his situation because the pressure in my head eased off. The room stopped spinning. I dragged in an ash-filled breath tasting of smoke.
“Dante, I need you to listen to me. If you kill Luca, there’s nothing controlling the Drax. They will take our souls before we escape this room. So, tell your demon to stand the fuck down.”
“There. See? The voice of reason.” Blackwood sounded so fucking pleased.
I spat out a mouthful of blood, slowly forcing my body upright, my knees shaking beneath my weight as I swayed back and forth.
“And you can go fuck yourself, asshole. I’m going to pry your vile presence out of my brother’s body if it’s the last godsdamned thing I do on this earth.”
Behind me, Dante let out a low grunt of warning. I glanced down, a single tendril of black shadow winding around my ankles like a cat’s tail.
Nico.
The next wave of shadow flooded the room like an untamed sea, a roiling black mass that swept over us in a single furious pass that engulfed every Drax near the door and the window and the walls and simply ended them.
Bodies clattered to the floor all around us, and when the darkness receded, there was nothing left but the curled husks of twenty… thirty Drax left behind.
Then Nico stepped through the doorway.
Not wholly transformed, but enough that I shivered, my instincts screaming.
Obsidian eyes swept over the room, skimmed over me slowly, as if reassuring himself I was still mostly intact, fanged mouth thinning out at the blood splattered in front of me.
Shadows uncurled from his hands in slow, undulating waves—reminding me of the Veil of the Underworld—and even Luca recoiled from that silent threat.
“Very efficient,” Blackwood crooned. “Have you come to threaten me?”
“I came to make you a deal.” Nico turned to the bed. “You’re going to get the fuck out of Luca. You do that, and I will come back to Rome with you.”
“No.” The word exploded out of my mouth as I reached for him. “You can’t, Nico. There has to be another way.”
“There is not.” Nico turned to me, his face a map of ruin. “This is the only way to end this, Emberline. I give this bastard what he wants, and your brother goes free.”
No. I looked between Nico and Luca, the impossible decision I couldn’t be expected to make. If Nico went back to Rome, his father would break him—break our entire world—but if he possessed Luca, what chance did my brother have?
Your brother is already mine. Blackwood’s voice roared inside my head through the mental bond I shared with my brother, shattering whatever wall had been between us.
Nico is mine, too.
In fact, you’re all mine.
I put my hands over my ears, trying to block out that purr of satisfaction in his voice.
“I’m afraid it’s too late for deals, son.
We have the Basin. We have the Drax. In fact, we have everything.
” I took a halting step toward my brother, and he lifted his finger in warning.
“Your brother is quite breakable. Even now, he’s screaming, trying to get out.
I’m afraid he’s not quite so resilient as you. ”
“I’m going to get my brother back. And then I’m going to kill you.”
“Oh, I think not, little bird. I think you will scream instead.” That awful, crushing pressure filled my head, white spots exploding until they took over my vision. I hit the floor, twitching uncontrollably on the hard, cold stone.
“Stop.” Nico’s enraged hiss came from very far away. “Stop hurting her.”
“Or what? You’d never harm Luca; it’s not in your nature. You’re just like your mother, Nicolò—too much heart, not enough grit—but we’ll fix that. Once you’re back in Rome and this nonsense is behind us, you’ll serve me well.”
“Let Luca go, Father,” Nico pleaded, his voice cracking. “Take me instead. Use me. Use my magic.”
“As it turns out, the boy has something valuable as well. The boy is so very tired of suffering.” Blackwood licked his lips. “He’s been fighting for days. It’s exhausting, the resistance. Admirable, really. I’ve broken stronger men in hours.”
“Plee….eease.” The word was dragged from me, a plea that wouldn’t be heeded, but I had to try, anyway.
Dante curled his massive body around me like a shield, warm as an oven.
But he couldn’t block out this pain.
Couldn’t stop the pressure swallowing me whole, crushing my brain, turning it into soup. Something warm and metallic seeped out of my nose, my mouth, but I couldn’t move, my cheek flattened to the cold floor, limbs heavier than lead.
The last thing I registered before white swallowed everything up was Dante shouting my name.
Then nothing.