Chapter 65
EMBERLINE
Silent as a cat, I landed on the roof of my childhood home, just as the sun fell behind the buildings.
Every tile was like an old friend, every beam creaked beneath my boots with the same, familiar tune. I knew the bones of this old house as well as I knew my own body, and I paused, letting myself remember everything good that had happened inside these walls.
Watching boats sail past through the upstairs windows.
Father showing me how to read a map for the first time.
Laughing as Luca and I chased each other around the garden in our bare feet.
Tonight, there was no laughter. Just the weight of steel at my thighs and the cold reassurance of the gun pressed to my spine. The enemy I had to face, alone, in order to get to the truth.
I took a breath of Venice, tasting the far-off Adriatic, the petroleum in the air, someone boiling pasta.
Crouched at the roof’s edge, I counted the guards in the courtyard below—two by the fountain, one making a slow pass along the far wall—then slid down the sturdy copper spout to my old bedroom window.
The broken latch gave way, and I was inside.
For a moment, I listened. The house breathed in and out with a heavy, familiar silence I knew all too well. Nothing but the distant tick of the clock in the hallway downstairs.
I slipped through the door, boots whispering across polished marble floors and thick wool rugs, and for a second, I was a child again, sneaking downstairs for a midnight treat, pulse racing for fear of being caught.
Nothing had changed.
The same gilded mirrors lined the walls, catching slivers of moonlight. The same ancestors watched from the walls with their judgmental scowls and prim smiles.
But over everything hung the unmistakable smell of smoke, and I grinned.
Dante and his fire demon didn’t fuck around, and it must have cost Giovanni a fortune to have everything restored so quickly after the inferno. Even imagining this place burning down didn’t hit me like it once would have.
This had been the only home I’d ever known, and now it was just an empty shell, thanks to my uncle. He’d taken a lifetime of happy memories and twisted them into something I couldn’t stand the taste of, and I hated him for that.
More than for everything else put together.
But I’d come here for a purpose.
He may have stolen my childhood memories.
He may have killed my father, imprisoned my husband, and he might have Gabriel locked up, but he would not take anything else away from me.
I was done fucking around. Tonight our score would be settled, and if I had my wish, only one of us would be walking away.
I strode down the corridor toward Father’s old study, not afraid of being caught, now that I was inside.
The servants had the night off. Giovanni was two blocks away at a private celebration, enjoying the sycophants fawning over his newfound power, fighting to keep that humble smile on his face.
My hand brushed the hilt of one of my knives as I turned the knob on the study door.
Memories washed over me when I stepped inside, my body betraying every resolution I’d made.
My throat tightened, eyes tearing up as I swept my gaze across papers and paintings and his old desk where Enzo should be sitting right now, hunched over with his terrible posture, not noticing me because he was so absentminded.
But my father was gone.
And I had my own demons to confront.
“Emberline.”
An hour later, Giovanni crashed to a halt in the doorway, mouth falling open, eyes bugging out, making him look more like a frog than a spider as he took me in.
Tipped back in father’s chair, boots up on the desk, a pile of presumably important papers crumbled beneath my heel.
A grin on my face.
“Your powers of observation are keen as ever,” I observed, “You’ll make a fine Don, I’m sure.”
His teeth ground together. “There is a five-million-gold bounty on your head, niece.”
“So, I’ve heard,” I didn’t move from my position; in fact, I leaned back further. “That’s a lot of money, Uncle, even for our coffers. You must be truly desperate.”
Some inner conflict played out over his face, a rare glimpse behind the mask he wore.
Should he kill me now and be done with it or call the guards to capture me, then stage a spectacular execution?
Decisions, decisions.
Giovanni was diminished by this room, by the towering bookshelves, the heavy drapes framing the city and the Grand Canal, the same faint scent of ink and leather—my father’s cigars—that he would never fully manage to erase.
“I’m glad you are here, Niece.” He recovered from his initial shock, smiling as if this was a social call. “Perhaps the time has come to clear the air between us.”
Perhaps the time has come for me to stab you in the heart, but sure, let’s play nice for now.
“I would agree,” I said blandly, using my knife to magnanimously point to the seat opposite me—the one reserved for lesser royals and penitents.
My uncle’s expression tightened with irritation when he realized I wasn’t budging. After an internal debate, he sat, looking as if he’d swallowed poison.
“Is this where you apologize for killing me? Because if so, I’m all ears.” I looked at him expectantly. “Make it a good performance; I have high standards.”
His smile widened. “You always did love to pretend you were in control. Even when you were little. Sadly, you are about to be proven wrong, dear nice.”
Boots clattered down the hallway, then soldiers crowded through the doorway.
“And here I thought we’d have a family reunion.” I shook my head. “Too bad, we have so much to catch up on.”
Hands seized my arms, wrenching them back hard. I didn’t fight back as they stripped away my weapons, my gun, with practiced efficiency. Of course, they missed a few.
“You really shouldn’t have come here alone,” Uncle said lightly. “But you were always reckless, in addition to all your other failings. And as far as that bounty…”
I pasted a look of shock on my face. “Let me guess, it’s not DiRavello money?”
“Of course not,” he scoffed. “Do you seriously think I’d drain my own coffers when I can raid the council’s? And since I’m the one who caught you, I shall be the one who collects.”
“Now there’s a shocker.” I widened my gaze. “Playing both sides for your own benefit.”
“You should learn to keep your mouth shut.” He tilted his head. “The reward was for whether you were dead or alive, though I admit…” His eyes darkened with malice. “You have caused far too much trouble alive.”
Little do you know the trouble I’m causing, you old buzzard.
Silence stretched between us, tight as a wire.
Then I smiled.
“So, kill me, then.” I shrugged. “You’ve already done it once. Perhaps you’ll have better luck the second time around.”
The soldiers tightened their hold, as if waiting instructions, but I didn’t flinch. I kept my eyes on Giovanni, watched the flicker of indecision he couldn’t quite hide.
“No matter your choice, know this,” I went on, my voice steady, “you will lose. We hold all the cards, and you are only bluffing; you just don’t know it yet.”
His lips curved as he nodded to the soldiers restraining me. “Bold words, considering your current position.”
“Position?” I let out a breath that might have been a laugh. “We’ve already won. It doesn’t matter what happens to me now. I’m irrelevant in this scenario. You’re done, Gio. Done.”
I leaned forward as far as they’d let me, testing their strength. “We have the Basin,” I said quietly.
The soldiers went still, knowing they’d just heard information that could get them dead.
Giovanni straightened, expression serene, tension seeping out of his shoulders as he rose to his feet. “If that is your ace in the hole, then it’s you who holds the losing hand, niece. Take her to La Sala. Lock her up beside the other two prisoners. How goes the hunt for the rest?”
“We are scouring the city, Don,” one of them said. “We have leads on your nephew. He was last spotted on the Dominico island. Soldiers have boots on the ground as of right now. We’ll have him shortly, sire.”
“Do you hear that?” Giovanni turned to me. “You’ve sentenced your brother to death with your foolishness. All you had to do was obey, and you couldn’t even do that properly.”
“I should be running this empire, Uncle, not taking orders from the likes of you.”
“You?” he sneered. “A female in charge?” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe those words had come out of my mouth. “That was never going to happen. You, Emberline, are unfit to lead. Just look at you. Walking in here unprepared, foolish enough to think you had outsmarted me.”
“Then tell me, Uncle.” My smile sharpened. “What will you do with your newfound power? Being a male and all, you must have such grand plans for the future.”
For a moment, he debated. But I knew my uncle, and he could never resist a chance to grandstand in front of a captive audience.
“First, I’ll eradicate the Dominico bloodline, down to the last child. Stamp their names from the record books, erase them from time itself.”
“Sounds like you’re jealous.” I tipped my head. “Six hundred years is an awfully long time to hold a petty grudge. Maybe they’ll put that in the record books.”
Color bloomed in his doughy cheeks, “I’ll execute your husband first, once I get my hands on him. There are ways I can kill him that will give you nightmares, so if I were you, I would keep that smart mouth shut.”
“What about the rest of us?” I prompted. “Are you planning to execute all of us, too?”
“You well know my plan since you stole the Basin. Once you are enthralled, you will become the obedient little niece I’ve always wanted, willing to carry out my every order.
You will kill whoever I wish, whenever I wish, and you will marry who I wish to form a strong alliance.
That is your role in life, Emberline. A broodmare for the cause. Nothing more.”
“Good to know you have my life all figured out.” I smiled serenely, even though I wanted to puke.
Like the floodgates had opened up, Giovanni kept talking, everything pouring out, tinged with jealous, petty rage, and a weak male’s insecurities.
“Severin will die, of course, for his insolence at that meeting, and Emilia… she will remain in stasis. She is far too unpredictable to be walking around.”
“You mean she’s a threat to your megalomaniacal plans?” I asked politely. “Who knew you were so thin-skinned, Uncle? Your feelings get hurt, and you smash up all your toys and flip over the table. Sounds more like a temper tantrum than a master plan to me.”
I met his gaze without blinking.
Let him see I wasn’t the niece he’d drowned beneath this palazzo.
Giovanni exhaled slowly, and whatever flicker of emotion had slipped through vanished beneath that polished calm. “You are finished, Emberline,” he murmured as a new set of footsteps rang down the hallway.
The stride was crisp and sure, the sharp clack of an expensive shoe against polished marble.
And then…
“I believe you remember Lord Blackwood?”