Chapter 56
NICO
This time when they dragged Emberline up from the water, she didn’t make a sound.
There was no gasping for air, no wet, drowning rattle.
She lay limp on the deck, hair plastered to her face, skin as white as mountain snow.
Like the night we’d pulled her out of that basement, and it had taken Emilia’s magic to bring her back from the dead.
I strained against the shackles, the chain slipping through the ring, link by link as I gained one foot, then another.
“Let me fucking help her,” I screamed. “Let me do something.”
Face down on the deck in a puddle of blood and water, Dante groaned, struggling to push himself upright, massive arms shaking for a moment as he managed to lift his head… only to collapse, unconscious.
Three of the guards were laughing.
Malicious, cruel laughter. The kind I’d heard my entire childhood, living in that castle outside of Rome. The laughter of bored, weak males who only found enjoyment in pain.
And then I felt the world shift.
Like stepping through a sheet of ice, we passed through the containment ward keeping my powers locked down. The vise around my chest loosened, the darkness inside of me unfurling like a thundercloud.
Iron was at my wrists and all around me.
Iron was inside me—three pins I’d counted as they went in, my vampire magic falling silent as they’d embedded in my flesh. My shadows were nullified by the suppressive power of the metal ship around me.
A cage that had held tens of thousands of prisoners before us.
Vampires looked at iron as a foolproof method of control. Yes, the metal was in our blood, but any surplus of iron disrupted magic born from the earth, interrupting the natural bond between a vampire and their inherited power, smothering magic until it was nonexistent.
The Emissary was not born of this earth.
And neither was his magic.
The problem was, I was on a boat, in the middle of the Adriatic, and the last time I’d transformed without help, I’d nearly leveled a fortress. My friends were bound up in enough iron that if this boat sank, they’d go down with it.
Killing my friends was not on my agenda today, but Emberline had run out of time.
She was still here—barely—her soul hovering above her body, and if I didn’t move fast, she wouldn’t stay for long. And the guards standing around laughing didn’t seem interested in her survival, so I had to act.
And pray this boat didn’t sink.
I tipped back my head and let him rise inside me, a hulking presence that expanded until I felt larger than the world.
The shackles went first, slipping from my wrists the way water slipped from stone.
The pins came out next, sliding from my flesh as I expanded, plinking onto the metal deck, loudly enough that two of the guards turned to look.
Shifting between mortal and demigod wasn’t painless.
This was like stretching myself over a mountain while trying to maintain some semblance of myself. And this time, I didn’t have Lucien to help.
The world sharpened around me, the stars brightening overhead, the reek of iron stuffing up my nose until I could barely smell anything else. My soot-stained clothes turned to shadow, floating around me in indistinct layers of darkness, my form expanding until even Gabriel edged away on the bench.
Valeria stared up at me, mouth open, a halo of gold surrounding her, the edges hazy.
Everyone on board glowed with some source of light. Reds and blues, greens and golds. Some brighter than others.
Dante, incandescent yellow, like a barely contained sun.
Gabriel, deep red, burning steady and quiet as an oil lamp.
But Emberline—lying so still on the deck—she didn’t glow at all.
Now all the guards were moving, plucking their useless weapons off the deck, organizing themselves into a sloppy semi-circle, loading their weapons with shaking hands.
I paid no attention to them, crouched over Emberline, touching her face, her skin cold beneath my fingertips as I brushed her cheek.
“Come back to me. You must come back,” I pressed my palm to her chest, right over her heart, barely even thumping.
“We have a fight to finish, princess, and we cannot do this without you.”
In the air before me, her soul turned, glared balefully, as if I was interrupting something important, then sank down until Emberline arched up off the deck and sucked in a long, gasping inhale. It was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard in my life.
“That’s it, princess. Keep breathing. In and out.”
She blinked up at me through waterlogged eyelashes. “Nico?” Recognition registered in her unfocused gaze, a smile curved her beautiful lips, then her heart sped up beneath my palm as she took me in.
Behind me, the guards were shouting now, ordering me to step away.
“It’s only me. I’m just in my other form, love.
I’m here. I’ve got you.” I tried to smile, and her eyes got wider, so I closed my mouth, slid my arms beneath her and lifted her off the cold metal.
“I need you to stay out of the way.” I carefully set her down beside Gabriel.
“And I’ll have you all free in just a minute as soon as I get the keys. Hang tight.”
Then I frowned. It seemed odd that Death’s Emissary would say hang tight. I’d have to find something a bit more… primordial. In fact, I’d have to develop an entire persona around the Emissary. Something suitably frightening yet impressive.
Sort of a… Thanatos vibe.
Perhaps Dante’s demon would have some suggestions.
And I definitely needed a cape. A long one. Red, maybe.
“The lanky guard, he’s the one with the key to the shackles.
” Emberline jerked her head to the group of them all lined up, their clubs traded for guns, expression bright with terror as they raised their barrels to point directly at my chest, fingers on the triggers.
Darkness spread out around us, a penumbral shield against the gunshots ringing out, bullets hitting my shield and vaporizing.
“Stay here. I’ll be right back.” I paused. “I mean, remain here, and I shall return.” I grinned, wanting nothing more than to kiss Emberline, but… perhaps it was a little too soon, given how wide her eyes were right now.