Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
Nevaeh
“CAELIAN!”
The scream tears from my throat as his body staggers, blood blooming across his white shirt like a deadly flower.
I don’t even register Dad’s body hitting the ground beside me.
There’s only Caelian—always only Caelian—as I throw myself toward him, my desperation making me clumsier than I’ve ever been as a ballerina.
I crash to my knees beside him. His gray eyes find mine through the haze of his pain. His jaw’s clenched and teeth are gritted, like even now he’s trying to fight through how much it hurts.
After a lifetime of pain, he’s stronger than anyone I’ve ever known.
I clutch at him, slick blood seeping between my fingers, right over his damaged heart.
The heart that’s already been poisoned and weakened by years of experimental treatments. The heart that might not survive this.
“Caelian… no… please…”
“Do what you must, Nevi,” he chokes out. It’s a grunt that’s coarse and rough with agony. His hand finds mine, squeezing with what strength he has left. “Nevi… do what… you must.”
I nod, tears blurring my vision as I look into his storm-gray eyes.
I understand what he’s telling me.
Survive.
Whatever it takes.
The next gunshot makes me flinch. I turn in time to see Mom’s body jerk, tipping over onto her back. She had been kneeling beside Dad’s body like I am Caelian’s.
Mourning the death of their scheming. Their get-rich-quick plans.
I wish I could say I give a damn about seeing either of them go down. But after everything they’ve pulled, I’m left numbed to their fates.
Too overwhelmed by how losing Caelian—the only one who’s ever cared for me in this web of lies—would crush me into pieces.
Nero’s girlfriend shrieks at all the violence, her chair toppling over as she scrambles. She flees the room in a blur of blonde hair and clingy fabric. Her screams fade along with the click of her heels as she retreats farther down the hall.
Nero doesn’t even glance in her direction. His cold eyes are fixed on me and Caelian bleeding out on his expensive floor.
“And then there were two,” he says on a note of cruel amusement.
He steps closer, his gun still smoking, still aimed.
A man so obsessed with his hair and clothes, there’s normally nothing predatory about him. Not in the same sense there is with men like Caelian, who are beastly and dominant.
But in this moment, Nero feels like the Big Bad Wolf closing in. He’s the monster I’ve been terrified of all these years finally materializing in front of me.
He might not be physically powerful, but he’s powerful in all the ways that matter in a moment like this.
“You’re a stupid girl, Nevaeh,” he begins conversationally. “So naive to believe you were ever going to win against me. Did you really think a broken crime lord and a runaway ballerina could stand against an empire?”
I press my hands against Caelian’s wound, applying pressure as more blood slicks my fingers. His breathing is shallow, labored. The color is draining from his face with terrifying speed.
“Even now, in this moment, I control everything.” Nero gestures around the room with his free hand, the contrast between the gleaming dining room and the dead bodies more disturbing than ever. “I’m the one truly in charge. It’s always been that way. It’s always going to be that way.”
He stops a few feet away, looking down at us like we’re insects he’s about to squash with his designer shoes.
“Your parents thought they could steal from me and profit. Foolish. Ignazio believed he could play both sides and survive. Pathetic. The Ziccardis imagined they could use me as a stepping stone to greater power. Delusional.”
I sniffle and dare a glance up at him. His cold smile meets me, showing off his large pearly veneers fit more for a horse’s mouth.
It makes his smile even more unsettling paired with the mad glint in his gaze.
“All were foolish to ever believe they could stand in the way of my empire. I’m going to profit from this cure. I’m going to continue growing my power until I rule not just Dresden, but the entire country. Because I’m just that unstoppable.”
A sob catches in my throat as Caelian’s hand goes slack in mine. His eyes are still open, but they’re losing focus. The man who taught me strength, who showed me I was worth more than my parents ever believed, is dying in my arms.
“Please,” I whisper, then louder, “please.”
I turn to Nero, tears streaming down my face, my voice breaking. “I’ll give you the key. I’ll give it to you so you can profit all you want. Just... just let him live. Please. I’m begging you.”
Nero tilts his head, considering me like I’m a curiosity. “That’s not possible.”
“Why? Why can’t you just let him live?”
“Because a man like Caelian Ziccardi must die,” he says matter-of-factly. “He’s too dominant, too threatening. Even weakened, even broken, he would come for me eventually. I don’t leave loose ends, little ballerina.”
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t. I’ll keep him away from you. He won’t retaliate, I swear it. Just let him live. Please just let him live.”
Nero’s eyes narrow. “And you expect me to take your word? After what your parents just pulled? After your husband barged in here like he was going to run things?”
“I had nothing to do with what my parents were up to—and… and Cael… he was just worried about me. He was looking for me.”
“If he lives tonight, he’ll die the moment he tries to retaliate. I will crush him myself. I will make sure my men capture him, and we’ll have our fun making him die a slow and painful death. You’ll be there to watch.”
I nod frantically, willing to agree to whatever he says. “Yes, okay. Whatever you want. Just don’t let him die. Please don’t kill him right now.”
I force myself to let go of Caelian’s hand, my fingers sticky with his blood. His eyes track me as I stand, a flicker of protest in them.
He doesn’t want me putting myself in harm’s way. His instructions were to survive. Not protect him.
But I’m willing to do whatever I need to do to get us out of this situation.
“I’ll show you where the key is,” I say in a forced calm tone. “It’s in my parents’ car. I hid it from them.”
Nero gestures with his gun. “Walk ahead of me. And don’t try anything stupid. You’ve seen what I do to people who disappoint me.”
I step in front of him, each stride taking me farther from Caelian. The man I love so much who’s bleeding out on a villain’s floor.
It feels so wrong my stomach churns and my heart aches.
But I force myself to keep going, reminding myself this is what I’ve got to do.
Right now, I’ve got to get Nero away from Caelian if he’s to survive.
Nero dogs my footsteps as I lead him out into the hall. My mind’s racing, calculating angles, distances, possibilities.
I’ve trained for this. I’ve spent years training as a ballerina and then as a spy, learning how to lead men on only to get what I need from the situation.
Nero has no intention of keeping his word. He sees me as nothing but a weak little ballerina. If he gets his hands on that key, then it’s over for us.
But I’m about to show him differently. I’m about to survive at all costs—and make sure Caelian does too.
I slow my pace, no longer moving at a fast stride.
“Keep moving,” Nero commands behind me.
I stop altogether, raising my hands as if in surrender.
In my mind, I’m back at the dance company, feeling the burn in my muscles, the perfect control of my body honed over years of training. I’m in my dance studio at Caelian’s, practicing for hours at a time to an imaginary audience.
I’ve learned how to use my small size and the speed and flexibility I have so naturally to my advantage.
“Did you hear me?” he barks. “I said keep—”
I drop low, spinning in a perfect circle on the ball of my feet, the other leg spread out. I sweep Nero’s legs out from under him before he even registers what’s happening. As his legs swing up into the air and he crashes down onto his back, his gun discharges anyway.
The bullet cracks through the air, narrowly whizzing by my head. So close the heat sears past me and shatters a crystal vase on a side table nearby.
I launch myself at him, my small frame not enough to hold him down in any real way. But my nails are ready, going straight for his eyes.
“ARGH!” he screams as I gouge at them.
I go harder, sinking them in, drawing blood.
“You fucking little bitch!” he roars in agony. He flips me over so easily I almost go tumbling off him altogether.
Before I can, he pins me to the cold marble. His arm flies out, his blow connecting with my cheek. I’m backhanded in a burst of smarting pain.
My vision shakes like my whole world has been sent spinning.
A little harder and he’d probably have knocked me out cold.
I draw a breath and then taste blood.
“Stupid girl,” he snarls, grappling for the gun that’s skittered a few feet away. “I’ll teach you a fucking lesson. You thought you were going to get the best of me?”
His fingers close around the grip. He’s going to kill me. He’s going to put a bullet in my brain and then finish off Caelian, and everything we’ve fought for, everything we’ve survived, will end in this golden hallway…
But then a boot comes down hard on Nero’s hand.
Hard.
A stomp that makes Nero wail in immediate pain.
The sound is like music at a time where all hope feels lost.
I look up to see Caelian standing over us. He’s sickly pale, blood soaking through his shirt and dripping onto the marble, but he’s standing. His gray eyes are pure fury, pure vengeance, pure love.
“You should have made sure I was dead,” he growls.
He crushes down harder with his boot, making Nero scream in more agony.
Then Caelian’s other foot swings up and connects with Nero’s face in a devastating kick. Blood explodes from the mob boss’s nose, his head snapping back with the force of it.
Caelian bends with a grunt to scoop up the gun. He points it directly at Nero’s face as the man lays back with blood streaming from his broken nose, his hand swollen and crushed.
“This is for all the fucking pain you’ve caused me,” Caelian says. “For the poison you put in my veins. For the years you stole from me.” He cocks the hammer. “And this is for her. For every second of fear and suffering you’ve put her through.”
The gunshot reverberates through the golden marble hallway like thunder, like justice, like the ending of an empire built on blood and suffering.
Nero’s whole body jerks as he takes the bullet to the head, then he falls still.
For good.
Caelian sways on his feet, the gun dropping from his fingers and clattering to the ground. I scramble up and half-catch him as he falls, both of us crashing to the floor in a heap of limbs.
“I’ve got you,” I whisper, cradling his face in my shaking hands. “I’ve got you, Cael. Stay with me.”
His eyes find mine and he smiles. Despite how pale he’s become and how ragged his breaths are, he gazes up at me and smiles like he’s never been happier.
We’ve been reunited, and that’s all he wanted.
“Always knew you were a fighter,” he murmurs, his hand coming up to touch my cheek. “My beautiful fierce ballerina. Mia bella feroce ballerina.”
Then his eyes close and he goes still.