Chapter 58
EMBERLINE
Ipicked at the edge of the blanket, doubt gnawing away at me like the groaning silence of this place. I was perfectly safe.
I was in the bridal suite where this all began, the sumptuous room still smelling faintly of old rose petals. And my blood.
I’d been tended to by three healers, taken a hot bath, and changed into clean clothes.
Gabriel himself had tucked me into bed, after coaxing me to drink from his wrist, both of us pretending we didn’t notice how fast our heart rates sped up or the way heat built between us with every mouthful of blood.
He’d still been here, holding my hand when I’d fallen asleep, but was gone when I woke from a nightmare.
Nico was back from the mountains. I detected the faint scent of cherries wafting through the crack in the door when he’d peeked in to check on me when I was sleeping.
But Dante wasn’t.
I told myself my husband was right behind him. That the dangerous light in his eyes wasn’t a suicidal gleam. That at any moment, he’d walk through that bedroom door, and everything would go back to how it should be.
But as the hours passed, doubt rooted itself deep in my chest.
I stood at the tall windows, the hem of my borrowed nightgown brushing the floor as I watched the mist roll in, clinging to everything in ghostlike tendrils until I felt like I was suspended in a muted, dusky world.
The sumptuous gown I wore had belonged to their mother, Zafira.
Gabriel mentioned her name absently when he’d handed the slip of silk to me, likely to cover up the fact I’d been in nothing but my underwear after the healers left.
He’d been looking anywhere except at me, blood splattered and broken, too exhausted to pretend anymore.
The soft, aged silk whispered against my skin, too elegant to sleep in, the style from long before I was even born. Wide sleeves hung slightly loose, the high waist hugging my stomach, flowers and vines and small birds neatly stitched in a pattern as complicated as any tapestry.
I wrapped my arms around myself, staring out over the lagoon.
The water stretched endlessly, its surface a shifting mirror of gray and silver as clouds rolled in overhead, the barest flickers of moonlight filtering through. There was something inside Dante.
A fire demon, like the ones Enzo used to tell me about.
A demon he couldn’t control, and if I knew my husband at all, his first—and only—thought would be to keep me safe. Which meant he would be willing to do anything to protect me, including destroying himself.
I swallowed hard.
Maybe he was on his way here, even now… but there had been a hopelessness in the way he’d stared at me, as though he was committing my face to memory.
As though he didn’t expect to see me ever again.
If I had more strength, I wouldn’t have let him out of my sight, but I hadn’t been thinking straight and had allowed Gabriel to bustle me out of there, wrapped up in his coat, telling me we’d regroup on the island.
On our way out, I’d seen the destruction he’d wreaked. The blackened walls, the melted stone, the bent metal. The piles of ash that used to be bodies.
All of this had to do with his scars, with those tattoos, but I didn’t know enough about his time in the Fossa to piece everything together. All I knew was that he would die before he would ever hurt me.
And that was the nightmare that had woken me up.
I blinked hard. “Of course, you would sacrifice yourself,” I murmured, pressing my hand to the cool glass, fog outlining every finger. “So much easier than talking to me.”
A vague shape was moving through the fog, and my heart stuttered, fear stealing my breath before hope rose like a tide.
Slowly, the figure took shape. Tall. Broad-shouldered. Mostly naked. Without a hint of fire or flame, Dante moved with his usual surety, prowling up the shoreline toward the dock.
“Thank the gods,” I breathed, pausing when another figure materialized behind him. Every bit as tall, but rangy, longer hair. I squinted, trying to penetrate the shifting mist.
Luca. Is that really you?
I’m right here, Emberline. Safe and sound, but gods, do I have a story for you.
Finally, I sensed my husband, the bond opening up, his presence flooding to me, brushing against my awareness like a low, constant heat. As if I was holding my hands up to a flame on a cold day.
Dante was alive, and he’d brought my brother here, where he’d be safe. Somehow, Giovanni didn’t have him, and Bruno hadn’t… gods, I had so many questions.
I whirled away from the window and was through the door, bare feet flying down stairs, then over rugs and wood floors, taking the turns too fast, slamming into a wall in my haste.
I yanked open the first door I came to and burst out into the night, the cool air kissing my face, tears streaming down my cheeks.
“Dante, Dante, Dante,” I yelled as I raced down the steps to the dock, then I was in his arms, gripping him so tightly, as if I was afraid he might disappear if I didn’t hold on hard enough.
“You’re here,” I breathed against his hair, my voice shaking. “You’re actually here.”
“I’m here,” he said, a little breathless from the force of the hug but laughing softly. “I told you I’d come.” I pulled back enough to look at him, my hands framing his face, checking—searching—for any sign of fire in his eyes. There wasn’t any.
“Hello, sister.” Luca was laughing, too, despite the smear of blood across his cheek, and… was that a broken nose?
“Luca,” I scolded. “What happened to you?”
“Your husband is a fucking force of nature, that’s what happened. Uncle didn’t know what hit him.”
“After we talked to Bruno, I went straight to the DiRavello palazzo,” Dante said simply. “Two of his personal guards were wrestling your brother to the ground. I… dissuaded them from continuing.”
I blanched. “You what?”
“They weren’t expecting me,” he continued with the same casual indifference. “So, I did have the element of surprise. Suffice it to say, the living quarters will need some repairs after tonight. I am sorry about the antiques; they were quite nice.”
“He showed up naked and set the whole godsdamned palazzo on fire,” Luca said with a grin. “Uncle was shouting about saving everything in the office, and we got the fuck out of there.”
“You could have been killed,” I scolded, even though I couldn’t stop grinning. “Tell me how pissed Uncle was.”
“Oh, he was pissed.” Luca nodded to my husband. “I don’t know what he was planning to do with me, but whatever it was, his entire night was ruined. Now he’ll spend tomorrow cleaning up.”
I brushed a stray strand of hair from my brother’s forehead, then looked back at Dante.
“Thank you for saving him.”
We both knew the horrors Luca had escaped tonight, and hopefully, my sweet brother never found out what a close call he’d had.
“I knew he was the most important person in the world to you, tesoro.”
Something in my chest twisted painfully with his words, at the knowledge that he didn’t include himself in that sentence.
I reached out and linked my fingers with his. “One of the most important, you mean. We’re all family now, and I love my entire family. All of them. Equally.”
Understanding flickered in his eyes, a slow smile creasing his lips, as if he was afraid to believe what he’d just heard.
“I love you, Dante Dominico.” I went up on my toes and pressed my lips to his. “You’re mine, and I’m yours, and don’t you dare ever think otherwise.”
“I love you more, tesoro.” His smile softened as he looked up at the house. “Let’s get your brother sorted out, and then… I have a proposition for you.”