Chapter 14
EMBERLINE
Mist crawled across the ground and snaked around my ankles, leaving a chill of cold behind. I had been here before.
Right after I drowned in the darkness and woke up somewhere even blacker.
Twin veils fluttered before me, tattered and full of holes, the gaping space between them widening enough for me to step through. I wanted to. Every time I had this dream, the pull grew more demanding, more… tempting.
My feet slid forward, enough that a cold wind kissed my face, as though winter waited just on the other side.
But it wasn’t winter that greeted me.
Ottavia stood with her hands braced on her hips, wearing a look of supreme disappointment only a mother could conjure up, dark eyes—the exact shade of mine and Luca’s—flashing her ire, saying all the words her pursed lips did not.
For a moment, I was content to just look at her. Let emotions wind through me in a confusing, overwhelming stream of grief and curiosity and yearning for what could have been.
There were so many similarities.
And so many differences.
Her chin was more pointed than mine, her body lithe as a dancer’s, thin and delicate, not an ounce of fat. But that vibrant, glowing energy surrounded her like a golden aura, making her appear almost alive.
“Mother.” I dipped my head. “It’s good to see you.”
Sometimes, in my dreams, she was silent; sometimes she uttered fragments of sentences that made no sense. Tonight… she offered a warning.
“You need to be careful.” Her low voice was edged with urgency. “Where you are going, monsters wait in the darkness. A trap is being set. You will be the bait.”
Behind her, my father emerged from the darkness, still in that blue tattered sweater, lifting a hand in greeting.
“Hi, Dad,” I said softly, emotions clogging my throat and pushing tears out of my eyes.
“Listen to your mother, Emberline.” Enzo linked his fingers with Ottavia’s. “She’s trying to help you.”
“I’m… not sure what to do,” I admitted, eyes locked on their linked fingers. “My husband is in the Fossa, and I’m worried he’s…” I bit my lip, suddenly drowning in emotions as everything I’d feared this past month crashed down around me.
“I have this feeling when I get there, he won’t be alive.”
Enzo’s eyes were sad, his smile the one he used when things were about to go badly, but he was trying to be positive. “Dante is a survivor. And he needs you now.”
“I know,” I sighed. “But… maybe I should stay here. What if I only get in the way and slow them down?”
“You are the only one who can find him in the maze. One more day,” my mother intoned. “Only one. You must go now if you wish to save him.”
My heart sped up. “What do you mean, one more day?” I took another step, the veil flapping around me, ice crackling over my face as I broke the plane between my dream and the Underworld.
My parents’ eyes flared wide in alarm, raising their hands to stop me.
“What do you mean?”
“No, Emberline, go back, you can’t…”
I burst out of the darkness into the dappled light of my bedroom, gasping for breath, dust swirling around me like a cloud. My face stung, and when I patted my cheeks… they were covered in ice.
Impossible. There was no way I’d dragged part of the Underworld out of my dream, but there it was, melting on my palms as the last of the day’s sun faded through my window.
One more day, Ottavia had warned, so did that mean today was Dante’s last day?
Or were we already too late?