Chapter 6
EMBERLINE
Iscreamed his name as Dante stepped straight into that inferno, then Gabriel slammed the thick door closed behind him.
His voice muffled, Dante—the demon—roared out a challenge, and the Ashbound shrieked back, their shrill agony building until I clapped my hands over my ears.
That shriek rang inside my head as Luca and I traded horrified looks.
I’d blustered my way onto this rescue mission, yet here I was, cowering in a corner, hoping I didn’t get burned to ash. Not for the first time, I cursed not having a speck of magic to my name.
The door was smoking, wisps of white crawling up the thick oak, the space stinking of old, burnt oak. Just as I expected the door to disintegrate completely, it swung open, revealing a corridor of melted stone strewn with the broken, cracked corpses of Ashbound along that superheated crucible.
The air spilling into the storage room was hot enough to scorch our lungs.
Nico threw up another shield, and we could all breathe again.
I peeked over Nico’s shoulder, to where my husband occupied the whole of the corridor, ash and sparks whirling around him like he formed the center of the vortex.
“Stay back, bella,” Gabriel tugged me to safety. “Nico and I will locate Rocco. You and Luca get the boat turned around. Don’t start the engine until we come through the door.”
“What about Dante?” I peered at my husband, at the flames crawling over his arms and body, his massive chest rising and falling in careful, measured increments.
“He’ll be fine.” Nico waved a hand, shadows spilling around him and Gabriel to form a solid shield. “And if he isn’t, well, gods help whoever decides to come down that hallway next because they’re toast.”
Not that he was wrong, but my chest tightened at the sight of Dante, fighting so hard to take back control. Even knowing the danger, I took a step forward, hands clenching with the need to touch my husband, to make sure he was all right.
I couldn’t just leave him there. Not like that. All alone. Not with his head hung low, fighting to take back control.
Abandoning him right now felt cruel. And that’s when I realized how badly I’d miscalculated tonight. I couldn’t help my husband. I couldn’t help anyone.
Luca finally pulled me back toward the dock. “Come on, Em, before you get roasted alive. Let’s get to the boat. Nico’s right. The sooner they find Rocco, the faster we get the fuck out of here.”
We made our way back toward the dock, stopping every so often to monitor Nico and Gabriel’s progress as they worked their way down the hall, throwing open doors, keeping that shield of shadow around them as a cushion against the heat.
We paused at the storage room when Gabriel’s shout rang down the hall—both of us bracing for the very worst when…
“We got him.”
Every muscle in my body sagged in relief before Gabriel’s harsh next words reached us.
“What are you two waiting for? Get your asses to the boat.”
“Keep moving,” I urged Luca. “We’re nearly there.”
We raced through the wrought-iron gate, heading for the boat…
I skidded to a stop, muscles locked with horror.
The Riva was gone.
Vanished.
“How the fuck can a twenty-five-foot boat just disappear?” I knelt at the dock edge, peering into the black water, as if I could somehow wish the thing back into existence.
“Clearly, someone stole our ride. Which means we’re not alone.” Luca yanked on my ponytail as more skittering crept out of the darkened corners.
“That had better be one of those godsdamned rats,” I muttered to myself. “Knowing Marcello, this place is probably full of vermin. Hopefully, they don’t have rabies, because if they do, we’re…”
“Em…ber…liiiine.” My brother stretching my name out into five syllables had me straightening, blades dropping into both hands. “We’re… we’re in big trouble.”
An Ashbound stepped out of the shadows and into a circle of flickering light, gauzy shreds of fabric suspended around its skeletal body.
The unnatural skin was etched with a network of fissures, all of them spilling over with banked fire.
This one’s cracks were too numerous to count, mostly visible at the throat, along the collarbones, and across the hands.
Like that was where the flames had eaten away first.
“We’ll never stop them with these weapons,” I muttered out of the side of my mouth, palms sweating against my knife hilts.
“I know,” Luca whispered back, pulling out his gun anyway. “Where’s your husband? He could ash this thing in a heartbeat.” Like me, he stayed perfectly still, sliding his gaze to the still-open door. “We should yell for the others, right?”
“No yelling. Sound makes them all jittery.” I managed a quick glance to the still-empty doorway.
Damn it. Where were they?
“But yeah, Dante is the only one who can kill this thing.”
I retreated one slow step back the way we came, Luca mirroring my movements. “And who the fuck stole our boat? I doubt these creepy things know how to drive. Come on. Slow and easy. We get through that door then we close it behind us.”
“Gods, stop talking. I’m going,” Luca ground out, the toe of his boot scraping across the floor. “Don’t rush me.”
“You know how I get when I’m nervous, Luca. If I don’t talk, I might do something stupid, like stab it, and last time, I got the shit burned out of me by one of these things, so don’t tell me what to do.”
“Remind me to partner up with your husband next time,” my brother whisper-shouted. “At least he doesn’t complain nonstop. He just grunts out a word here and there.”
The thing tipped its head to the side as we fell back another step, then two more Ashbound emerged from the doorways to our right, flanking us. In fact, all those doors were wide open, and from the openings scampered a steady stream of rats, running for their lives.
Oh gods, Em, this is so not good. The sour scent of my brother’s fear filled the air, the three creatures honing in on him like wolves scenting prey.
Yeah, no shit. Any ideas?
Try not to die. Luca palmed his gun. That’s number one on my agenda right now.
“I’ve got two full clips,” Luca said in a monotone. “I empty one into the closest creature and your fire-breathing husband will come running, right?”
“So will everyone else in the palazzo, including Blackwood’s goons and a bunch more of these things,” I reminded him, squeezing my eyes closed. I couldn’t believe what I was about to suggest, bile rising in my throat. “What if they can’t go in the water? If we jump off the dock, would they follow?”
“You can’t swim, Em.” Luca ground his teeth together, flipping the safety off his weapon. “So, stop talking crazy and come up with something useful.”
“Gods, I’d rather face the water than these things.”
Actually, I’d rather face neither, but right now, the water gave me a better chance of survival. Besides, Luca could swim.
He’d keep me afloat.
We were still twenty feet from the door. As fast as these things moved, we’d never cross that distance before them. But it was either we go back the way we came…
Or into the water.
I shuddered and took another slow step, my boot scraping over the stone.
“Why do I get the feeling they’re toying with us?” Luca kept his weapon leveled at the closest Ashbound as we edged backward, the creatures mirroring our every move. Then Luca stopped.
Uhm, Ember, we have a problem.
Yeah, no shit.
No, like we really have a problem. Luca jerked his head behind me.
As if our odds weren’t bad enough, two of Blackwood’s private guards materialized right behind us, their black uniforms unmarked except for silver stars on their collars and gloves, like gauntlets, made from black leather.
They smiled, full of darkness and malice, and my palms began to sweat.
The Ashbound were to our left, water to our right, the guards blocking our way through that door, but I knew which poison I’d pick.
The guards were flesh and blood.
They could be killed.
One of the guards lifted his gloved hands, turning his palms toward the ceiling.
Fine. We’d fight our way out, then. I drew my right arm back, blade held loosely between my fingers, aiming for the asshole’s throat.
My entire world tilted, Luca slamming me down onto the dock as a plume of reeking darkness streaked above our heads and collided with the stone wall behind us, the entire palazzo groaning from the impact.
Dark, curling shadows evaporated overhead, like a contrail from a plane, and a chill trickled down my spine.
Black as midnight. Swirling, like they’d come alive.
Exactly like Nico’s.
The ball of magic exploded across the stone with a wet, sticky splat, debris raining from the ceiling, and where those shadows hit…
a glistening stain covered the stone, glossy, like fresh tar.
For one fraught second, nobody moved. Then out of that dripping mass, something crawled.
Something equally dark, with too many legs.
Something that moved exactly like a spider.
If spiders were the size of small horses.
“Ember… what the fuck is that?”
I never got a chance to answer because the closest Ashbound lunged, claws scraping down my right arm, carving through skin and tendons like they were butter.
Agony streaked up my shoulder, my hand going instantly numb as I rolled away.
The thing’s stench was putrefying, stuffing my nose and mouth with brimstone and rot mixed together, and I hacked up a mouthful of blood-flecked saliva.
Bracing my good hand on the filthy floor, I eyed the ten feet now separating me from my brother. I’m going for the guards first, I told him, awkwardly pulling out another knife. Not my dominant hand, but I’d have to make do.
Luca, I’ll draw them off. As soon as you have an opening, run. Get to Gabriel and Nico. You have to warn them.
My brother stared straight at me, shaking his head. “If you think I’m leaving you like this…”
Then Luca froze, all the blood draining from his face. Emberline. Don’t move. Don’t turn around.
Whatever was behind me… the hair on the back of my neck rose, some primitive survival instinct locking up every muscle, heart racing as I sensed a creeping presence behind me, the stench in the air so strong I choked.
My brother lifted his gun and, without blinking, pulled the trigger.
The bullets whizzed past my cheek, close enough I felt the heat as each one passed, and whatever was behind me hissed and thumped, like a fish out of water.
I didn’t look. Whether one of those spiders or some new, fresh hell, it didn’t matter.
We have to go.
Get your ass up.
Luca fired two more shots, hauled me to my feet and dragged me across the dock, toward the closest cover… straight through one of those open doorways and into the darkness beyond.
We stumbled into that darkness, wet and dank, the air stale from centuries of disuse.
“I can’t see a fucking thing, Luca,” I hissed, pain exploding up my brutalized arm as he dragged me deeper and deeper down the tunnel.
Blood dripped from my fingers, the coppery scent filling the air.
Somewhere behind us, I heard shouting, an animalistic roar, then even that was swallowed up by the total gloom.
Where are we going?
Don’t know. My brother was panting. Away from the guards and their black magic and whatever spawn of hell that hatched out of it.
So, you saw the spider, too?
Fuck yes, I did, and I never want to see anything like that again.
We lurched through darkness together, feeling our way along the narrow tunnel, barely wide enough for us to walk one behind the other. We’d never be able to fight in these close quarters, never be able to move, especially if that too-many-legged thing was behind us.
At least we could see the Ashbound—they literally glowed in the dark—but every panicked glance I threw over my shoulder showed nothing but a shrinking square at the other end of the tunnel, now filled by swirling fire.
“That’s Dante. We wait here.” I sagged against the cold, damp stone. “We wait until he fries the guards and burns the Ashbound, then we’ll regroup. Figure out how we’re getting out of the city. Since some asshole stole our boat.”
Luca might have answered me, but out of those raging flames the spider materialized, elongated body bobbing up and down on long, jointed legs, as if it had caught our scent.
I looked down at the warm blood sliding down my brutalized arm and dripping off my fingers. “Luca. I’m leaving a blood trail behind us,” I whispered, fighting to stay calm. “I think it smells me.”
Then the thing charged.
Straight toward us.
“Fucking move.” I shoved my brother in front of me, our bodies bumping together as we ran, no sounds except our panicked breathing and that horrid insectile skittering behind us.
Then we slammed into a dead end.
Nothing but rough stone.
“There has to be a door.” My brother’s breath sawed in and out. “Find the fucking door, Em. Find the door.”
Behind us, that rhythmic tapping slowed, like the creature knew we were trapped and was savoring our panic.
I ran my good hand over the rough surface in front of me, feeling for something, any fucking thing that might… there… wood, boards, of some kind. And then…
There’s a handle, Luca.
Behind us, the tap, tap, tap grew louder, the sound echoing around us like a clock, ticking down the seconds until we were dead.
Fucking open it up, Em. Whatever’s on the other side can’t possibly be as bad as whatever’s behind us.
I took a breath, prayed my brother was right, and turned the knob.