Chapter 24
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Ilanded on Emilia’s island with my eyes closed and body braced for pain, fully expecting a full-on assault from her wards.
My feet crunched harmlessly on the rocky shoreline, and I cracked open one eye.
One of Emilia’s priests was waiting, his somber, blank expression seeming more… pleased to see us than usual.
Without a word, he dipped his head, turned on his heel, and headed for the temple.
Gabriel looked around with a low whistle. “Apparently, we aren’t the only ones who had a rough night,” he muttered, his hand resting on the small of my back as we followed our guide.
All around us were signs of wrongness—chunks of grass gouged up from the earth, a blackened streak burned across the stones, ending at the water. Emilia’s sons did not go down quietly, and a kernel of worry burrowed itself into my bones.
What if she hadn’t won?
What if we were walking into a trap?
There were two of them, after all, and only one of her.
Gabriel’s hand cupped my elbow, supporting my next step, all strength and steadiness, his body a firm reminder he was right there, if anything went wrong.
Dante led the way, head swiveling, scanning every detail as we passed, broad shoulders tensed, giving off a shimmer of heat against the cool, early morning dawn.
A silent Nico trailed behind, the disgraced Draconi soldier, a male who betrayed his friends, a lover who… Our eyes caught, and his dark, ruinous gaze sent my heart twisting in pity and love for the boy who grew up alone and the male who had to hide himself from his friends, just to survive.
And Luca…
My brother remained at the villa, after eating an enormous breakfast and looking far better, thanks to Gia’s magical healing. Shoving food into his mouth, he’d answered my barrage of questions with the sort of jokes that were like his old self.
Valeria would be up soon, heading to the city to dip her toes in the cesspool of the new council, though I wondered if Vincenzo would be the DiSangue Order member in attendance… or if Emilia would make a surprise appearance.
Either way, I expected poor Valeria was in for a shock on her first day as the Demente Pentarch.
“You stay close to me or Dante,” Gabriel cautioned softly as we started up the steps to the temple. “There is no telling what we’re walking into, and Emilia will still be weak from stasis.”
“That female’s never weak,” I muttered beneath my breath.
But… she had been last night. Weak enough she could barely sit up. Weak enough she’d gripped the edge of the altar like she was holding on for dear life. My worry grew with every step.
We passed through the gardens. Branches were snapped off trees, one of them burned down to a blackened pillar of ash. Gabriel pulled me closer, his hand wrapping around my forearm, fingers denting my skin.
The priest stopped outside the doors, dipped his head, and swept out a pale hand, ushering us inside.
And then it was me, hanging onto Gabriel for dear life, me, who could barely breathe. Me, who could barely swallow down the panic as I stepped inside the room where I’d very nearly died last night.
In a dream, but… still.
Emilia lounged in the center of the temple in an ancient throne carved from black stone. Given the gouges in the floor, she’d dragged it out here herself. Right in the center of that cursed circle, the runes dark and inert.
Still, I gave that whole fucking thing a wide berth.
So did Nico, his fingers reaching up to brush the nape of his neck, as if he could still feel the bite of his father’s blade.
Vincenzo and Paolo were trapped inside cages forged of magic, fragile bars of white power glittering with flashes of electrical pulses. Powerful enough that both beaten, battered males crouched in the very center of their tiny, confined space, careful not to touch them.
Emilia toyed with her necklace, one leg thrown over the arm, her other foot on the floor, the picture of lazy decadence.
The white dress was shredded on one side and covered in soot.
Blood splattered her throat and face. Dark hair spilled loosely over her shoulder.
Longer than I expected since I’d always seen it arranged in one of her elaborate arrangements, decorated with jewels… or bones.
Now, she looked like exactly what she was.
A feral, vicious creature sated from a successful hunt.
“Wonderful. Everyone is here.” She made no move to rise, kicking her bare foot loosely back and forth, eyes glittering with the sort of intensity that would normally make me sweat, but only had me feeling ever so slightly sorry for her sons, who looked like they’d barely survived.
“I suppose thanks are in order. I’d been searching for a way out for so very long, I’d nearly given up. Imagine my surprise when you two appeared out of nowhere.”
Those glittering eyes glanced off me and settled onto Nico, her smile dimming ever so slightly before she sucked in a quick breath.
“I expect at least one of my favors to be forgiven,” I said tartly. “Or two, if you’re feeling especially generous.”
Normally, I wouldn’t push my luck, but one never knew when a chance like this would come along again, and I wouldn’t be my father’s daughter if I didn’t try to leverage this once-in-a-lifetime situation to my advantage.
“Two it is,” she agreed easily.
Damn.
I kicked myself for not asking for three.
“As you can see, Paolo and Vincenzo are learning the price of their insolence. And I do have a confession to make.” Her fangs gleamed. “They aren’t really my sons. Not by blood, at least.”
“Are you serious?” I gaped at her. “Do you mean I was nice to them all these years, and I didn’t need to be? They’re sniveling little shits, Emilia.”
Seriously. I’d practically bitten off my own tongue to not publicly insult those two stronzos, and now I find out… my restraint was all for nothing.
“Yes, they are, aren’t they?” Her eyes sparkled. “Every Pentarch needs at least two heirs, and they were mine. Chosen from the orphanage, given every luxury they desired; all they had to do was never betray me.”
“It looks like that was too big an ask.” I looked at the two of them in their golden cages. “What will happen to them?”
“They’ll be put somewhere they can’t be used as pawns.” She tipped her head, looking positively feral. “But enough about me. Why don’t you fill me in on what I’ve missed in my absence?” She glared at Vincenzo and Paolo. “They haven’t been especially forthcoming.”
“I… uhm…” I hesitated. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable talking about this in front of them. We can’t risk anything critical getting back to my uncle or Blackwood.”
She waved a hand in the air, her normally perfect nails in dire need of a manicure. “The cages are soundproofed. They can’t hear a thing. And I want them to see you. To know they chose the wrong side.”
Well, given they were locked in cages like a couple of pigeons, I expected they’d figured out their mistake by now.
She waited, slowly sliding her pendant back and forth on the chain around her neck. When she caught me looking, she stopped, tucked it back underneath the bodice of her torn white gown.
I eyed those runes like they might bite me, the circle like a trap that might snap closed, as it had last night. Even now, in this realm, I swore I smelled Nico’s blood and the poisonous reek of Blackwood’s magic, something pungent and charred and oily, even though that wasn’t possible.
No… it shouldn’t be possible, but I had the feeling that much like my uncle, I’d be a fool to underestimate Blackwood.
Gabriel explained everything succinctly, including the incriminating letters we discovered at Rocco’s, his treachery in involving Lord Blackwood, my uncle’s mysterious absence, and the council meeting where Gabriel was imprisoned and Giovanni crowned as Don.
Our desperate visit here, only to discover she’d been put into stasis.
“I’ve been told my priests attempted to wake me,” she murmured, her full attention fixed on Vincenzo, who curled down tighter. “I suppose I should be grateful you didn’t just kill me and be done with it.” Her red lips curved up. “Oh wait… you can’t. You’re too weak.”
“There was some… resistance to our leaving the last time we were here. We may have caused considerable damage on our way out,” Gabriel explained, diplomatically glossing over the fact Dante had very nearly burned her temple down. “If there are reparations to be made…”
“Nothing that can’t be fixed. Now tell me about Blackwood. How… entrenched is he in Giovanni’s mad plans?”
“As far as we can tell, there is no Giovanni anymore,” Dante rasped. “Blackwood has become our main concern. He’s moved his personal guard into La Sala, and they…” He pinched the bridge of his nose.
“They what?”
“They possess a disturbing form of dark magic. Something none of us have ever seen before.”
Emilia was nodding. She’d pulled out the pendant again, toying with it absently. “Black magic runs in that bloodline. There is a particular ritual you undergo to serve in his guard, and once you endure the transformation, you become his.”
Staring straight at Nico, she pressed the oddly shaped pendant to her lips, and I finally got a good enough look at the thing to realize what it was.
A white key.
Carved from bone.
The very key I’d stolen for her out of my father’s safe as a token of thanks. A key rumored to open the door to the Underworld. Why was that around her neck?
“Did you see him for yourself?” she asked, the sudden question directed at Nico. “Was he there?”
“Blackwood was there all right. He trapped us inside the circle, and we almost didn’t get away.”
“Hmmm.” She didn’t look especially shocked by this information, more like… curious. “But you managed to escape?”
“Clearly we did, since we’re standing in front of you,” I interrupted. I had no wish to delve into Nico’s and Blackwood’s connection in front of Emilia. Gods knew what she’d do with that information.
“We’re here because we have questions only you can answer. Questions about the…” I glanced to her sons, hoping they couldn’t hear a thing. “The Basin. About whether or not the relic can be destroyed.”
She stared at me with ancient eyes, something burning in their depths I couldn’t decipher.
“That conversation will require food and drink.” Emilia pressed her lips to the key, disappeared it beneath her bodice, then rose to her feet in one graceful movement.
“Come with me, and I will tell you a story only a select few know.”