Chapter 69
EMBERLINE
My arms were wrapped tight around Nico when the world snapped back into place.
One breath, I was nowhere, and the next, my boots settled on stone, the faint brine of the lagoon in the air. Fear sizzled in my veins, Blackstone’s dark magic still prickling over my skin as I stepped away from Nico and bent over, sucking in a shaking breath.
Fuck. That had worked. And I hadn’t even died.
We’d arrived at the rendezvous point, the darkened corner of a wide, mostly empty piazza on the eastern edge of the city, the Arsenale casting long shadows across the stones.
Electric lanterns flickered against ancient brick, and over by the fountain, a violinist played for a tourist crowd, his case open in front of him, trying to collect some last-minute euros.
“We’re first.” Nico gripped my hand, monitoring the humans’ movements, gun in his other hand, thumb on the safety as he double-checked our two exit routes.
We were tucked into the far corner, hidden from view by a closed-down newsstand, but Nico spooled up some of his shadows, spinning a dark shield between us and the rest of the piazza. Behind us, a crooked, narrow alley led to a canal.
Once he was sure we were clear, he holstered his gun and cradled my face with shaking hands. “Fuck, Ember, don’t ever do that to me again. If I’d known Blackwood would show up, I’d never have agreed to any of this.”
“Two birds, one stone.” I shrugged, even though I was still trembling myself. “I think we were fortunate he was there. Now, let’s hope the others had equally good luck, or…”
The air rippled, then a grinning Luca stepped out of a shimmer of nothingness, Gabriel slung over one shoulder. My heart clenched at Gabriel’s battered face, swollen eyes, and the pained wince as he tried to hold himself upright.
“He’s bleeding bad,” my brother muttered, lowering him to the ground. “But we had to get him out of there.”
I knelt down, checked him over, and thankfully, found nothing life-threatening this time. “You’re too injured to dematerialize,” I scolded, but gave my brother a look of thanks. They’d done it. They’d gotten him out.
Now, where was…
Dante rematerialized with a crackle and an eye-watering stench, a towering mass of muscle with an old, dirty blanket wound around his waist, ichor and blood splattered over him, as if he’d just emerged victorious from the Pits.
We were all alive.
Something inside my chest broke free, and I was moving, crossing the space between us in a heartbeat. He caught me up in his arms, and for a second, neither of us spoke. I pressed my face into his shoulder, my eyes burning, throat tight.
“You really need to do something about this clothing situation. You smell like dead fish.”
“So I’ve been told,” he muttered into my hair, voice thick.
I let out a laugh that dissolved into something dangerously close to a sob.
“We all made it. And the Basin?”
“Safe. Hidden. Where your uncle will never find it, that I promise.” His grip on me tightened for a second before he exhaled, tension bleeding out of his big body as he curled himself against me.
“I’ve been out of my mind with worry. Next time,” he said, voice a rasp, “we come up with a plan that doesn’t involve you being the bait.”
A smile tugged at my lips. “I wish you had seen Giovanni when he found out he’d been outmaneuvered. His expression was amazing. And by amazing, I mean he looked like he was going to throw up.”
Dante frowned, rubbed his thumb down my cheek. “What’s this?” He came away with a smear of blood.
“Might be from Blackwood?” I murmured, shaking my head. “He was reaching for me… he could have touched me before Nico got us away.”
“What do you mean Blackwood reached for you?” Flames ignited in his gaze. “He was there? Emberline… were you alone in a room with Lord Blackwood and your uncle?”
Behind me, Luca huffed out a brotherly sound of disgust. “If you two are done arguing, can we actually start celebrating?”
“It’s too early to celebrate.” Gabriel held his side, his other hand braced on the cobblestones. “Giovanni’s sending soldiers to the island, everyone there is in danger, we have to…”
“We already evacuated the island,” I cut him off with a satisfied grin. “Everyone who mattered is safe, including your horrible aunts and cousins and the staff. There’s no one left for them to capture. Or use as hostages.”
“And we left them a parting gift,” Nico added, darkness flickering behind his eyes.
Gabriel’s brow lifted. “Define gift.”
“Let’s just say… whoever gets to the castle first won’t be leaving the island. Ever.” My brother’s toothy grin was almost as feral as my husband’s. Maybe pairing the two of them up had been a mistake; I didn’t need Luca learning any bad habits.
But for a heartbeat, I let myself celebrate the victory.
We’d beaten Giovanni at his own game and survived.
And tonight’s success was fragile, but I let some of the tension ease from my shoulders and hugged my husband closer, pride swelling in my chest as I looked at this family of mine—bloodied and covered in soot—who I wouldn’t trade for the world.
“Alright then.” Gabriel squared his shoulders before Luca pulled him to his feet. “We need to move. This place won’t stay safe for long. What’s our destination, now that the island’s been compromised?”
“I’ve got a place on the mainland the Brotherhood uses.” Nico paused, looking past us to where the violin had stopped playing. “We get ourselves there and hunker down, see what Giovanni does next.”
“Then we take that fucker out,” Gabriel said grimly, just as the air shifted around us, like lightning was about to strike. We all went still, scanning the piazza.
A scream rent the silence. Over at the fountain, the violinist was on the ground, the crowd scattering in all directions.
A sea of burly figures moved between the tourists, tossing them out of the way like toys. Some groaned and crawled away; others didn’t move at all.
Black uniforms. Unmarked. Not Giovanni’s.
“Who the fuck are these assholes?” Gabriel growled, stepping between me and the threat, even when he could barely keep himself upright.
A thicker layer of Nico’s shadows wove around us, but the newcomers sensed we were here, splitting off into groups, five of them headed in our direction.
“Fuck.” The curse dragged out of Nico in a long, horrified hiss. “Get Emberline out of here. Now.” Before I could argue, his eyes met mine. “Blackwood’s private guard.” His gaze landed on my cheek, where Dante had touched my blood. “Go. I’ll slow them down.”
“We fucking stay together,” Gabriel snapped out. “We’ll lose them in the campos. They don’t know this city like we do.”
“You’re injured and can barely walk,” Nico argued. “You’re not losing them anywhere.”
“Uh, they’re getting closer,” Luca muttered beneath his breath. “Whoever’s in charge had better make a decision.”
One of the soldiers stopped. Stared right at me, as if he could see through Nico’s magic.
Then he smiled, fangs gleaming.
“Get behind me,” Dante ordered, then stepped straight through those shadows, and the illusion of safety shattered as the world turned into a blinding ball of flame, and in the space of a breath, the closest soldiers were smoking piles of ash, a few stray embers floating down from above.
But there were twenty more, and now they knew our location.
“Go,” Dante ordered over his shoulder. “Get to the second site. I’ll meet you there.”
Nico grabbed the back of my jacket and practically tossed me into the alley, then the entire world burst into a brilliant, blinding flash of heat.
We ran. Down the crooked, narrow alley, straight toward the canal.
Behind us, chaos erupted, fire roaring, gunfire, people screaming.
“How far to the Arsenale?” I shouted, following Nico, racing down the narrow street, my shoulders brushing both sides of the brick walls, my pulse hammering. Dante will never fit through here, I thought, panicked.
“Not far. Five minutes.” Nico’s feet pounded the cobblestones, his shoulder clipping a pipe sticking out too far. But we could make it, it was a clear shot between here and…
“Move faster, we have company,” my brother grunted. Soldiers poured out of a side street behind us, momentarily getting tangled up in the small intersection, then they were moving, gaining ground.
“They’re going to trap us in here. What’s our next move?” Luca asked breathlessly, so close his chest bumped against my back. I prayed Gabriel was right behind him.
I never answered because Nico was gone, crossing the canal in one leap, a slip of water barely wide enough for a boat. I teetered on the edge as Luca slammed into me, my arms pinwheeling, desperate not to fall in.
“Come on, Ember, jump,” Nico urged, reaching out his hand from the other side. “You can do this, just pretend you’re on a roof.”
I pretended, but that watery deathtrap was too damn close for my liking. My heels caught the edge when I landed, Nico hauling me to solid ground by my belt. Then Luca was across, and finally Gabriel, landing heavily with a pained grunt.
“We can’t keep this up.” I set my hand on Gabriel’s shoulder, peering behind us for any sign of Dante. But all I could see down the thin opening were those black uniforms, getting closer. They were so big, they were moving sideways, which was slowing them down.
“Can you dematerialize?” Nico hauled Gabriel to his feet. “Because we have to get the fuck out of this gauntlet.”
“Not without bleeding to death,” He lifted his hand from where it was pressed against his side. Bright, fresh blood gleamed on his palm.
“Then get the fuck down.”
We all dropped as Nico raised his gun and emptied his clip down the thin opening, my ears ringing. He instantly dropped the two leading soldiers, then the rest threw up a wall of… shadows.
Black, living shadows.
Shadows that looked exactly like Nico’s.
“We’re on foot.” Nico dropped his empty clip, slammed in a new one, no expression on his face except concentration. “Follow me.”
We cut through alleyways, over bridges full of startled tourists, the city blurring into a maze of golden stone and nighttime shadow, but they were still behind us.
And closing in.
“Arsenale,” Nico ordered, and we made a sharp right turn.
“Luca. The sigil.” My brother yanked it free, tossed it over to Nico, who muttered something as we flew past the wrought-iron gates and the lions, bursting through the heavy metal doors, slamming them shut behind us, the echo reverberating through the cavernous interior, empty except for the twin rows of enormous brick pillars.
I pressed my back to the door, chest heaving.
“How much magic do you have left?” Gabriel asked.
“I can read minds,” Luca said drily. “So, I can tell you the many ways they’re planning to kill us if that would be helpful?”
“Smart mouth, just like your sister.” He looked to Nico. “How much?”
“Enough to hide us, but they saw right through my shadows before, so I’d just be wasting my energy.” He checked his weapon. “A full clip, one in reserve, two blades.”
“I’m out.” I spread my hands. “No magic, and Giovanni’s soldiers took my gun and blades.”
“Well, I’ve got nothing,” Gabriel muttered. “Where the fuck is my brother when you need him?”
Clicking heels echoed from within the building.
Slow.
Unhurried.
Confident.
We turned as a door creaked open, Nico bringing his barrel up just as she stepped inside, like she was arriving at one of Rocco’s fancy galas.
Against the rugged history of this place, Valeria Demente looked amazing. A long evening gown clung to her like liquid, priceless yellow diamonds glittering at her throat and wrists, catching the light. Her pale hair fell perfectly over her shoulders in a sweep of gold, her expression composed.
Almost amused.
Behind her, four Demente soldiers in Armani suits and sunglasses fanned out, weapons trained on us, movements precise but not threatening. Yet.
I straightened despite the exhaustion clawing at me. This was the female who’d tried to lure Dante away, bribing him with her body and their past to join her father’s corrupted little empire of secrets.
My fists balled at my sides.
She said my pathetic bloodline was too weak.
“Come to finish the job Giovanni started?” Nico challenged softly, his voice like steel, gun pointed at her heart. Valeria tilted her head, considering him.
“Not exactly,” her smile turned savage. “If I wanted you dead, Nico Draconi, you would be.”
She paused as all around us, the ancient walls trembled, the smell of smoke and burned flesh hitting me a second before Dante materialized, flames rising from his broad shoulders, reflected in every single soldier’s wraparound sunglasses.
In this closed space, he was overwhelming, sucking—literally—all the air out of the room, soot building on the ceiling over his head as that fire danced all over him in blue and gold waves.
I had to give her credit, Valeria didn’t flinch, but her guards full on panicked, gunfire erupting… bullets melting before they got anywhere close to him. Or to us.
“Well. Now that everyone is here...” Like I wasn’t even worth the time, Valeria’s gaze completely passed over me and landed fully on Gabriel, her mouth tightening.
“I heard you spared my traitorous father’s life, despite the fact he sold out our Dynasty,” she said smoothly. “Which means I owe you a boon. Unless you want to die at the hands of Blackwood’s thugs, I suggest you come with me.”