Chapter 30
thirty
DANTE
Worrying about Luca is an old pastime. And nine times out of ten, he’s always okay. And he hates when I fret excessively, saying he thinks it’s because he can’t hear. That’s not it, but then again, how can I convince him that freaking out over my family’s safety is just a hobby of mine?
This time, though, it’s serious. This time, he’s in real danger. Eissa didn’t tell me everything, but the tone of his voice said I needed to hurry, and my heart is in my fucking throat as I attempt to steady my legs so I can get dressed.
But even with all this chaos now, I can feel Cielo in my head deeper than before. He really is my second heartbeat now. He keeps steady hands on me as I pull on sweats and fight off panicked tears.
Eissa was genuinely worried.
And if a Vyastil with their wildly magical healing herbs is worried, it has to be bad.
“Fuck,” I whisper, my voice strained—almost shattered. “Fuck.” My eyes find Cielo, who’s waiting by the door as I attempt to get my shoes on. “I can’t lose him.”
Cielo shakes his head and walks toward me. He drops to his knees and takes my shoe from my weak hands and eases it on over my stubborn heel. “Won’t. Dante,” he says, and I meet his eyes. “Promisss. Won’t.”
I want to believe him, but I don’t know that Cielo understands the gravity of this situation. They’re so long-lived. They have so many herbs that can heal them.
He can’t know what human mortality is like.
What it feels like as the end nears…
Cielo makes a soft noise as he puts my other shoe on, and he doesn’t let me go. Instead, he floods my mind with a powerful feeling of grief that almost takes me out at the knees.
I need a moment before I can process what I was just given, and then I begin to cry for real.
But these tears aren’t for me. Cielo has shown me exactly what he’s felt since his banishment, since knowing the family he loved—the family who raised him—were ripped from their village and taken god-only-knows where.
“I understand loss,” he says, his words completely clear.
I swallow back a sob and swipe my hands over my cheeks as he pushes to his feet, and while I know we don’t have a lot of time to waste, I drag him against my body and throw my arms around him.
“I love you,” I tell him fiercely. “I love you so much. And I’m sorry.”
He shakes his head and cups my chin before taking a small, tender, devastating kiss. “VySytheh.”
Another feeling sweeps through me, something deep and profound, something that shakes my core and makes me short of breath. I don’t understand the full meaning of the word, and I don’t have time to try to grasp it. I have to get to Eissa’s, and that poses my biggest problem.
Cielo reaches for the door, and I stop him.
“You can’t come.”
His eyes go wide and a little wild. He looks like he might try to fight the sky if I ask him to. “Yes. I go.”
“It’s at the Foundry,” I tell him.
His ears droop, and his eyes glance down at his feet before he nods. But it’s obvious he’s not giving in. “Hide.”
“Cielo…”
“Dante,” he fires back. He meets my gaze again and steps close. “You weeel not do thees alone.” His words are fierce and so clear. He presses his massive clawed hand to where my heart is hammering. “I weeel hide.”
I rack my brain for a second. I don’t think they’re going to do a full search in the car, so I run to the linen closet and grab the thick wool blanket my nonna gave me years back.
“In the back seat. It’s going to be really uncomfortable, but you can lie on the floor and cover up with this. It’s the middle of the night, and it’ll be dark. If there’s a guard, I doubt they’ll look.”
He nods and takes the blanket, but I stop him again before he can open the door.
“They still might find you. You know the risk and…and I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose you.”
He cups my cheek and kisses me again. “I weeel be fine. Promissss.”
I decide to take him at his word, trusting fate, which has never been kind to me. Still, my hands tuck him under the blanket in the back seat, all the while my anxiety ratchets higher. I hate that he has to hide, that he’s putting himself at risk for my sake.
He curls up tighter, his tail wrapped around his waist. This position isn’t comfortable, but luckily, the drive isn’t too far, and fate seems to be kinder to me today because when I get to the gate, there’s no guard.
I punch in the code Eissa sent me, then drive around to the back of the building and park.
I can see a couple of security cameras, so I grab my phone and call Eissa, who answers immediately. “So, Cielo is with me.” I brace myself for him to get upset, but he does little more than sigh.
“I thought he might insist. Where are you parked?” I give him my location. “Alright. Do your best to keep his face obscured, and I will have one of my contacts adjust the footage before the sun is up.”
“You trust them?” I can’t help but ask.
He laughs softly. “Yes, Dante. I do. And it’s not live footage, so it will be hours before anyone reviews it.
If they review it at all. My people count on blind obedience.
I doubt any one of them would believe a banished Vyastil would be rebellious enough to ignore the full terms of their sentence. ”
Ah. My brave and rebellious Cielo would do anything for me now, but when he first arrived, he was exactly as Eissa said.
Eissa’s word about the cameras is enough to settle me. It means I don’t have to face this alone. I can have Cielo beside me, which is the only way I’m going to survive it if Luca’s as bad as I think.
I get out of the car, then kneel down by the back door and pull the blanket off Cielo’s head. “You have to keep your face hidden, okay? Try not to look up at all. Let your hair cover most of your face.”
Cielo always keeps his hair in a tight braid down his back, but he reaches behind him and pulls the tie off, letting the multicolored strands flow around his shoulders.
I ease back so he can get out of the car, and he sets his hair to be a curtain over his face as I hurry us toward the door and punch in the code.
There’s another camera at the entrance, but none down the corridor and none near the elevators. This side of the building is nowhere near the front desk, so it makes sense why Eissa would take us this way.
He lives on the fourth floor, and I feel tendrils of fear wrapping around me as we rise. I’m about to find out what’s wrong with Luca, and there’s still a chance we could get caught.
Cielo senses this and reaches over, taking my hand in his. The weight of his fingers and the gentle prick of his claws are a strange but welcome comfort.
“Love you,” I whisper.
He doesn’t say it back, but he squeezes my hand and fills my head with so much affection I almost start to cry again.
I swallow past the lump in my throat, my eyes stinging, as the elevator doors open, and I check left and right to make sure no one is around. I feel like my heart is in my neck, pounding aggressively through my skin. But thankfully, no one’s around. We’re safe for now.
I tug Cielo down the hall until we arrive at Eissa’s door, and my breath catches in my chest. But before I can knock, it flies open, and I’m yanked inside by very human hands.
Luca, I think for a very brief moment. But it’s not him. Everest groans as he hugs me tightly.
“We’ve been waiting forever, dude. Why are you so slow!”
I shove him back and manage something like a smile, but I don’t have time for him. My gaze finds Eissa across the room, standing beside a very large dining table. “Where is he?”
Eissa’s eyes cut to the short hallway, then he lets out a soft humming breath. “Follow me. Everyone else, wait here. Dante is going to need a moment.”
This does not bode well, but whatever state he’s in, whatever condition, I’m ready. I need to know my brother is not only safe, but is going to live.
In that moment, the room feels empty, save for the other Vyastil. I don’t even notice the decorations or the furniture. I can barely feel my face.
“Come,” Eissa says, his eyes drawn, his mouth pulled into a worried frown as he beckons me along to the hallway.
Not even Cielo follows us, and I’m thankful he’s giving me this time. If I’m about to face my dying brother, I will need a moment to myself.
Eissa stops at the second room down a short corridor, and his hand grips the knob. My heart’s hammering in my chest as he pushes it open, and I blink against a low light on a nightstand.
It takes me a moment to see him.
Luca’s in the middle of the bed, sheet drawn up to his chest, and he’s awake. He’s got one arm in a sling, and his face is battered to hell. His lip is fat, one eye is swollen shut, and there’s a sunset of bruising cascading down his jaw and chest.
But he’s alive and not on his deathbed like I was afraid of. His one uninjured eye is fixed on me with an awareness I wasn’t expecting.
“Zitha,” I murmur quietly despite the fact that Luca can’t hear me.
“I have given it to him, but with his level of injury, he is taking a while to heal.”
I interpret all this without thinking—old habits that I never want to die. Luca makes a soft noise of pain and jerks his head to the side before wincing as he beckons me over.
It takes another moment for reality to hit that he’s fine, but when it does, my knees give out. Luckily, I’m already at the bed and collapse onto the mattress, letting out an almost violent sob of relief.
I cover my face as Luca passes his uninjured hand up and down my spine, making a low noise of what I know is meant to be comfort.
‘Asshole,’ I sign.
When I glance over, he’s grinning a little, which looks ridiculous over his massively swollen lips. ‘I know. I’m sorry. Did you get my video?’
I shake my head, then look over to find that Eissa is gone.
‘He’ll be back,’ Luca tells me.
I wonder how the fuck he knows that, but whatever. It doesn’t matter. The only thing keeping me from flinging myself into his arms once more is that he is in a ton of pain.
‘What happened?’
‘Zane,’ he signs.