Chapter 48
EMBERLINE
Dawn tinted the eastern horizon as the clock ticked off the seconds, faster than my lagging heartbeats. Much faster than Luca’s wet, labored breaths.
He was getting worse.
I’d been telling myself he’d take a turn for the better any minute now. That the unnatural veins crawling up the side of his neck would stop. That the black blood oozing from his right arm would turn red and healthy.
That any minute Luca would open his eyes and tell one of his awful jokes, give me that lopsided grin, and make some stupid crack about the awful stench in here… or something.
But he hadn’t been conscious in hours.
Everything that came out of his mouth was unintelligible. Mostly.
Between the moans, words burst out frantic and fractured—the ceiling… don’t go there… stop talking… I won’t do it—the phrases becoming so jumbled and frenetic, the healers had finally used their magic to put him to sleep an hour ago.
Valeria had left to get some rest.
Every so often, Gabriel and Dante drifted out of the room.
Nico, too, squeezing my shoulder and pressing a kiss to the top of my head.
Present in all the ways I needed them to be, saying none of the empty words I didn’t need to hear right now.
The healers moved quickly and efficiently, nudging me out of the way when needed, but otherwise working around me, tending to my brother with single-minded intent.
Right now, Dante watched from the doorway as Gia pressed her palms flat against Luca’s chest and fed another surge of magic into his limp body. Not that anything they did helped.
I let the guilt eat me alive, wanting to disappear beneath the waves of blackness.
Months of waiting, days of planning, thousands of soldiers at the ready, and everything had come to a stop because of me. Because I’d failed to do the simplest of things. Look after my brother.
As of a few hours ago, our revolt was over.
The soldiers sent home to Draconi Island.
The forces gathered at the fortress were all back in their barracks by now, asleep.
The DiSangue priests… doing whatever the fuck they did when they weren’t looking all murder-y with their sigils glowing.
Severin and Valeria would have to attend today’s council meeting at La Sala, which I prayed wasn’t a bloodbath.
“Emilia is on her way. Severin is coming with her.” Nico shouldered past my husband to stand beside me, both of us staring pensively down at Luca. “She will figure out what’s wrong, Emberline. And she’ll know how to fix this.”
I just nodded. I didn’t tell him not to make promises he couldn’t keep because I was counting on Emilia, too.
I was counting on her to get Blackwood’s poison out of Luca’s system.
I couldn’t be the only one who caught the faint hint of creosote in the reek of his blood or the way the dark veins climbed up the right side of his jaw, right where the Summoners were marked.
Nico stared at the very same spot, his gaze shadowed.
“Once your brother is on the mend, we’ll move.
Besides, this gives us more time to fine-tune the plan.
I don’t want you blaming yourself for the delay.
I mean that, princess. Your brother’s life is far more important than revenge.
” He held my stare for a moment, then turned toward the door, shoulders slumping, and…
Luca’s hand closed around my wrist.
Out of habit, I jerked backward, my free hand going instinctively for the knife I didn’t have because I was in the bloody infirmary. Luca’s grip was firm enough to bruise, and his eyes were open.
Not glassy—focused, not on me.
On Nico.
Luca opened his mouth, and I braced for more breathless, incoherent ramblings, but the voice that came out of my brother’s mouth was not his. Dread snaked through my gut because it was one I recognized all too well.
“You are a fool. You think I don’t know your plans? You think I’m blind?”
The tone—one my brother could never have mastered on his own—was cold and ancient and filled with unshakable arrogance.
“I know everything. The soldiers. The priests. The Basin.” Luca’s lips moved, but Blackwood’s threat came out in a hiss of sound.
I backed away, horror rising as those eyes carved straight into me like a pair of daggers.
Could Blackwood see us right now?
Was he somehow inside the villa?
Behind me, Dante and Gabriel muttered curses and orders, healers fleeing the room with such haste, metal trays crashed to the floor. I kept my focus on my brother, telling myself I was not afraid, that Luca and I had been in worse spots, and we’d get out of this one, too.
But that tasted like a lie.
Nico was perfectly still, every piece of him focused on Luca or, rather, the monster controlling him.
Please don’t hurt him, I thought, Luca’s fingers bruising my wrist like a vise. Please don’t kill my brother.
“I told you what I wanted, Nicolò, and you repay me by planning an attack.” Blackwood tutted, fully focused now on his son. “Now, you will learn the cost of defying me. Since you will not join me, I suppose this one will have to do.”
A sound that was almost a laugh spilled from my brother’s lips. An awful, creaking sound, full of malice and genuine evil.
“The boy is so pure. So innocent. He makes such a lovely host.”
“Get the fuck out of him,” I hissed, lunging forward, only to be pulled away by—not Nico, but Dante, his strong arms wrapped around my middle, pulling me until my brother’s grip loosened, my wrist slipping free.
Those eyes that weren’t Luca’s slid to mine. “Little bird. What a loyal sister you are. Did you really think my shadows missed that day in the council chambers? No… I never miss. I always hit my target.”
Oh gods, it was true. Blackwood’s magic was inside Luca. I shuddered, reaching up to touch my cheek, the small spot where he’d marked me.
Had he tried to do the same thing?
But somehow failed?
“Your brother will survive this, but perhaps it would be kinder if you killed him now,” Blackwood urged.
My entire body locked up tight as Dante dragged me another step away, his heart pounding even faster than mine.
“Let’s see how loyal you are when your brother’s gone mad from the pain. Or… I could make this stop. Restore your brother to what he was… before. All my son has to do is come back and join the fold. It’s your choice, Nicolò. I will give you until nightfall to decide.”
Nico’s jaw clenched tight, shadows slashing the air around him. For once, I was glad no one else in the room could see them, or they’d be running for their lives.
Blackwood’s presence left us like a candle blowing out. Silently, without another sound, Luca’s face went slack and gray, beads of sweat shivering on his forehead as he sank back into the pillow.
“Nico,” Gabriel said quietly. “Is your father through the wards? Does he know where we are?”
No response.
“Nico,” Gabriel said more urgently. “If Blackwood’s coming… if he’s already here, we have to evacuate. At least let us get the staff to safety.”
The infirmary door slammed open, and we all spun, bracing ourselves for the attack, Nico’s shadows spinning up in front of us.
Severin barreled through first; Emilia followed him, unhurried as always, her hair in an elaborate twist, garnets sparkling among the dark strands, dress swishing around her heeled boots.
“We heard his voice.” Severin methodically assessed the room, knife in one hand, gun in the other. His uniform was unbuttoned at the top, the only clue he’d spent the night coordinating an aborted attack.
“If Blackwood wounded him deliberately, then he’s been marked.” Emilia swept past him, straight up to Luca, and flattened her hand right down on top of the blackened flesh of his chest. Right over his heart. For a long moment, we all held our breath, then the priestess slowly removed her hand.
“He can see through this boy. Hear through him. Use him to send messages, as you’ve just heard. He’s been inside the wards this whole time…”
This whole time.
Bitter regret turned the inside of my mouth sour. Not only had I left my brother alone, I’d left him with fucking Cesare Blackwood and his sharpened cruelties, wielding words and threats like blades. What chance had Luca had, really?
What chance did any of us have?
Failure became a weight crushing down on my shoulders, the realization we were completely out of options. Blackwood—and most likely, my uncle—knew of tonight’s plans. We were facing an army of monsters, and now, we’d lost even the element of surprise.
And I’d lost my brother.
Not to death, as I’d feared, but to someone even worse.
“The Drax from yesterday weren’t from outside the wards,” Severin was explaining to Nico. “We have a theory that they’ve been inside all along.”
“We searched every inch of this villa,” Nico insisted stubbornly. “The island. We didn’t miss a thing.”
“Well, you missed something because I saw them in the living room with my own eyes, and there could be more.” Emilia’s lips pinched tight as her focus fell on me.
“Blackwood has possessed your brother. Which means he’s heard every word spoken, every conversation.
Every decision you’ve made within these walls. ”
“If that was true, Giovanni already knew we were coming last night. He would have been… expecting… us.” Gabriel dragged his hands down his face, chest heaving with one mighty breath as our eyes met.
Because if our enemies knew what we were planning…
“If we hadn’t called last night’s mission off,” Gabriel said slowly, shaking his head, “we would have walked straight into a trap.”
“But we didn’t.” Dante’s arms tightened around my middle, as if he needed something real to hang on to. “Because of you, Emberline. If Luca hadn’t collapsed, if you hadn’t decided to stay with him… we would all be prisoners right now.”
Or worse, I thought.
An accident, or a miracle, however you wanted to look at it, but Luca had saved our lives, and now I had to save him in return.
“Can you get this dark magic out of my brother? Whatever Blackwood put in? He made a dagger… a spear, out of his shadows, and whatever was inside it hit Luca, just as we were escaping La Sala. That was a week ago. Is it too late?”
Nico hadn’t moved from his spot near the door.
He stood there with a horrified expression on his face, staring at my brother, as if this was somehow his fault.
I wanted to take him by the shoulders and tell him it wasn’t, but Severin stepped between us, body braced in a way that told me he was expecting a fight.
“I’ve locked down the entire Draconi Island.
Given our location and the strength of our wards, we can withstand an extended assault.
He’d be safer there than here. The boy is a liability as long as Blackwood can control him.
” His voice held no hint of violence, but I tore myself out of Dante’s hold and put myself between him and my brother all the same.
“My brother is dying. He’s not a fucking liability, so whatever you’re thinking, you can just fucking forget it.”
“The fortress has secure cells.” Severin’s tone softened. “Properly warded, where the connection could be contained or even broken. He would be safer if Blackwood didn’t have access to his mind. Even you have to admit that.”
“You’re still talking about locking him in a cell. In a stone fortress, so the answer is no. Luca needs healers. He needs our help. He sure as fuck doesn’t need to be behind bars.”
“Emberline…”
“My brother has been carrying this secret alone for weeks, terrified and unable to tell anyone because I was too fucking focused on killing my uncle and saving this Dynasty from Blackwood. Well, guess what? It’s time for me to figure out how to save my brother now.
He’s not becoming a prisoner in your godsdamned fortress. ”
“This is the only…”
“Luca’s not going anywhere. He stays with me. And we figure out how to get Blackwood out of his head without locking my brother in a cage. He has been through enough, and I will not abandon him. Not now. Not ever.”
Emilia’s dark gaze glittered in disagreement, and I held her stare long enough, she dropped her eyes first.
“There may be a way,” she said after a moment. “But saving your brother will require time. And it will not be without cost.”
Nico looked at her, and something passed between them, and I knew then that whatever favors Nico owed Emilia, this one would be bigger than all the rest combined.
“Tell me what you need,” was all he said.