Chapter 4
EMBERLINE
My knees ached, the pendant pulsing like a second heartbeat between my fingers, the fixed gate still glowing as I waited for my uncle to reappear.
I’d been sitting on this roof for an hour. Waiting.
What the fuck was taking him so long?
Waves lapped at the mossy stone with lazy, indifferent strokes, as if our plans weren’t crumbling to pieces. Like my husband’s life—all our lives—didn’t hang in the balance.
Except… they did.
If Severin and my uncle were trading favors, then the Draconi Master had sold us out, and my uncle knew all about our plans to take him and Marcello down. Our revolt was doomed, and Dante would die in the Fossa.
But dawn crept over the tops of the Santa Maria Basilica, and I was running out of time. I waited five… ten more minutes, the morning wind kissing my cheeks, whipping my hair around my face. The bells of the closest church tolled the hour, and I sighed.
All I’d found out was that my uncle went there to ask a favor.
He was pissed when Severin refused.
And I had to get home.
I raced along the dew-slicked rooflines, intent on beating the dawn home.
Up here, every rooftop had its own unique pattern, but at ground level, this city was a labyrinth.
The safehouse Nico and Gabriel had chosen was buried in a particularly forgettable tangle of narrow, zig-zagging streets—no landmarks, no ornate bridges, just the same tired laundry lines and peeling green shutters as a dozen other blocks.
The perfect place to disappear.
I landed in a crouch on the edge of our roof before dropping down, hanging by my fingertips from the copper gutter. An old, sturdy one, mottled with verdigris, held my weight as I swung my body forward, so I landed silently on the narrow balcony outside my third-floor bedroom.
I reached for the cipher, activated the spell, and dropped the wards, threads of layered protective magic unknitting long enough for me to swing open the window and sneak inside, pausing to take stock.
No lights in the house. No voices. No movement.
Good. That meant Gabriel was still at the Dominico palazzo, playing dutiful son while Nico hunted down leads on my husband. I had time to return the cipher to where I found it, without Gabriel being any the wiser.
My eyes quickly adjusted to the dimness.
A narrow, unmade bed.
A pair of shoes kicked into the closet. A pile of clothes in the corner.
A far cry from my previous life as a pampered mafia princess with a gown for every occasion, raised in the aristocracy, and trained to kill in the shadows. I slipped the cipher off my neck, gripped the warm metal between my fingers, hesitating.
I could get through any vampire’s wards with this.
Rocco’s. Emilia’s. Even Marcello’s, and none of them would ever know.
It seemed a shame to give it back, but… Gabriel had stolen this from his father, and he must have his reasons.
Telling myself I wasn’t actually a thief, I snuck down the steps, intending to slip the thing back where I found it, beneath an open book, on top of a half-scribbled list of potential locations of the Pits.
A list I wanted to take a closer look at.
The narrow kitchen was empty, the table bare except for a half-finished bottle of blood-wine and one empty glass. Nico’s, most likely. The slob had the annoying habit of leaving everything lying around for me to clean up, which meant I didn’t do a thing.
I wasn’t his maid, for fuck’s sake.
The darkened main room beyond was small, lit only by the faint orange glow of banked coals in the hearth.
I froze. I hadn’t lit a fire all day, certainly not before I’d left.
“Have a nice midnight stroll, bella?”
Gabriel’s deep voice drifted out of the shadows beside the fireplace, smooth as butter, edged with pent-up anger. I disappeared the cipher into my pocket. No reason to piss my jailer off even more.
Chances were this would get ugly.
“I thought we’d talked about these little…
excursions of yours.” He unfolded his big body from a chair in the corner, the glowing coals catching the harsh angles of his face, so hollowed out over these past three weeks, he almost looked starved.
He shed the perfect mafia prince mask for the night—no tailored jacket, no tie, just a dark shirt rolled at the sleeves, throat bare.
His inky hair was tousled, as if he’d been running his hands through it for hours.
I didn’t like how haunted he looked these days, constantly torn between playing his role for his father, then poring over maps and satellite footage every night with Nico.
I should tell him to get more sleep, but he’ll just cut me off, like usual.
“I figured you were at the palazzo,” I said, because, apparently, I didn’t know when to keep my damned mouth shut.
“One of us needed to make sure you stayed put while we were gone,” he countered, blue eyes flashing. “Imagine my surprise when I came home to find our guest of honor missing. Again.”
“I would have left a note, but I planned to be back long before you.” I managed to sound unapologetic while pinned beneath that unblinking stare.
“That is not the compelling argument you think it is.” His gaze dropped to my hand in my pocket, as if he had X-ray vision or something. I loosened my fingers from around the pendant, trying not to look guilty.
Gabriel exhaled so godsdamned dramatically, I could fucking taste his disappointment on the air.
“I’ll ask you one time,” he said, in that calm, perfectly polite voice that meant he was very close to punching a wall. “And I am very tired and very cranky, so I will ask you not to lie to me again. Emberline, bella, may I have my cipher back?”
I hated that I was so drawn to this side of him. The carefully controlled heir with an edge of violence, the male so closed down, I wondered if he was capable of feeling anything at all. Once, I’d been close to peeking beneath that mask; now, I’d never get that close again.
“Emberline? Are you planning to return what you stole?”
Even caught barehanded, I hesitated.
It was stupid, but what I’d heard tonight could save our lives. This relic gave us an advantage, and when it was the three of us against an entire dynasty, we needed every advantage we could find.
And I would do anything to get Dante back.
Including defying his own brother.
Gabriel’s expression shifted into something a little more menacing, and the silence between us thickened, adrenaline spiking as his dark, woodsy scent washed over me.
“Please don’t try my patience tonight,” he added quietly, “I’ve had a long fucking day, bella, and I am at the end of my rope. And I will remind you of this. You may have lost your lover, but I lost my brother.”
His composure cracked, face twisting in grief, before his mask slipped back into place, and my heart squeezed, as if he held the beating thing in his fist.
This could be an act. Gabriel had spent fifty years convincing his father he was a loyal son, fooling the entire Dynasty, which made him the consummate actor.
But that hollow, aching tone did things to my resolve I did not appreciate.
“Fine.” With a sigh, I tugged the thing out of my pocket and held it out.
Gabriel stepped close enough for me to see the faint smudges under his eyes and lifted the pendant from my hand. His fingers brushed my palm for the barest instant, warm and calloused and reminding me of what life might be like if fate played fair.
At his touch, heat flushed through me, seeping into every cold corner, then I pushed the feeling away. Gabriel was not mine. I had to stop thinking about what could have been.
“That took some effort, didn’t it?” He reverted to that arrogant smirk that sent my hackles rising.
“You left it on the table,” I muttered defensively as he let it hang between his fingers. “It’s not like you bothered hiding the thing.”
“I left it underneath the book I was reading and didn’t think the female I almost married would steal from me and use precious resources to traipse around the city,” he countered dryly. “My mistake.”
“How did you even know…” I started to ask, then looked away from those blazing blue eyes, wondering, as I had so often lately, about things I should really just leave alone.
What would have happened to the two of us if Dante hadn’t stormed into our wedding and stolen me away? I liked Gabriel. I respected him. I would be married to him right now, pretending to be his wife while I took down his father’s entire empire.
Would he be my ally, my enemy, or my lover? Or all three?
Everything would be different if fate hadn’t interfered.
“Wait. What do you mean… precious?” I repeated, the word catching in my throat.
That brilliant gaze flicked to my face, something softer slipping through his irritation, an almost-smile dancing on his lips.
“The cipher only works so many times,” he explained as horror sluiced through my veins. “A powerful tool, but limited in its usage. Which is why it’s been kept locked away. Saved for only the direst of circumstances. You know. Life and death, that sort of thing.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuckity fuck.
“From the expression on your face, I assume you used the pendant tonight?” His shoulders sagged, the very picture of defeat. “Please tell me you used it for something important, at least?” he pleaded. “Tell me you didn’t just poke around on one of the Pentarch’s private islands for fun?”
Oh my gods, I was a fool. And he was seriously going to kill me. Deservedly so.
“I followed Giovanni to the Draconi fortress,” I admitted, avoiding his searching gaze. “I used the cipher to sneak through a secret portal and onto the island.”
Gabriel, the room—the entire house—went still.
His jaw flexed, then he moved like a storm, a wall of righteous anger, looming over me. Blue eyes burned, his mask slipping off, and a breath shuddered out of my lungs as I waited for him to shake me. To scream. For that restraint to finally shatter.
Maybe… I would welcome him finally losing control.
For something to break this dangerous tension brewing between us.
“Have you lost your fucking mind? Everything we have planned would collapse if your uncle discovered you were still alive, not to mention he would…” His lips clamped together, likely so he didn’t launch into an epic speech of how idiotic I’d acted tonight. “Start from the beginning.”
As succinctly as possible, I explained the fixed gate, the way Giovanni had stepped through Severin’s magic as if he’d done it a hundred times before.
I told him how my uncle had asked the head of the Draconi Brotherhood for a favor. The way Severin had refused. I couldn’t keep my words from tripping over themselves or my hands from squeezing into sweaty fists.
By the time I finished, Gabriel was pacing away to the hearth, the cipher dangling from his fingers like a pendulum.
“Severin and your uncle. A favor. What sort of favor would your uncle need from Severin… and why would the Draconi Master agree to meet in the middle of the night?” he muttered, more to himself than to me. “But he let him use the gate. That’s not a casual favor to grant.”
“No,” I agreed in a hushed tone. “That’s the sort of favor given out of desperation… or to a close ally. And why sneak around? Why wouldn’t Severin just go to the palazzo? He has the perfect excuse since his soldiers are tasked with providing extra security since the bombing.”
After Dante’s house blew up—courtesy of my uncle—the entire Dynasty was under increased security, provided by the Draconi Brotherhood. A boon for us since the heightened surveillance gave Nico unrestricted access to my family’s properties.
Gabriel stopped pacing and looked straight at me.
“You’re sure you saw Severin?” he asked.
Since I was already in enough trouble, I didn’t roll my eyes. “Bald head. Built like a stone pillar? I’ve known Severin Draconi my entire life and seen him more than I would have liked these past few months. Yes, I’m sure it was him.”
“He would never betray us. He must be gathering information on Giovanni,” Gabriel decided. “This favor is concerning, but chances are, Severin only took the meeting to draw out your uncle and try to expose him. But why…”
My throat tightened. “Why all the secrecy?”
“Why all the secrecy?” he repeated. “Nico won’t be back for a few days.”
His gaze slid away, landing somewhere on the wall behind me. “So, we sit tight and wait. I’ll keep my ear to the ground and put out some feelers in case there are any rumors spreading through the underground networks. Disruptions in the Draconi schedules or anything having to do with Giovanni.”