He didn’t raise his voice, but I winced internally.
“The traces of magic left behind aren’t even whatclinched it. Giovanni needs a witch or a high priestess in order to use the Basin. Emilia’s the only one in the Dynasty capable of wielding blood magic. My guess is, she’s been on board since before Enzo was killed.”
The quiet accusation knocked the air from my lungs.
I should stop beating myself up over Enzo’s death, but how could I, when every time I looked at Emberline, I was reminded of my failure? Would her father still be alive if he’d brought his proof to the council, and I’d backed him up?
I’d never know because I’d been too busy getting my head unfucked to do anything productive. I dragged my hands down my face, vowing not to make the same mistake this time.
“No.” As expected, Nico jumped to the old witch’s defense. “Emilia wouldn’t sell us out. This was one of the priests… Giovanni bribed one of them. That has to be it.”
Sometimes, I wondered what Emilia had on Nico, why he was always so quick to trust her. What strange history the two of them shared.
I made myself a mental note to take a closer look.
“Think about it,” Gabriel cut in, sharper than I’d ever heard him. “She’s the only one in the Dynasty who can use blood magic. The only one who could bypass the protections without setting off every alarm on that island.”
“And there were traces,” I added, for good measure. “Residual magic at the scene.”
“So far,” Gabriel replied, “everything we know points to her. Hard to argue with the evidence. Even you have to admit this looks bad, Nico.”
I leaned my back into the rough wall, exhaling hard. “She’s also been around as long as Giovanni. Once Marcello is gone, those two are our last elders. My guess is, we don’tknow the half of their history. This conspiracy could go back further than any of us know.”
“She’s not dirty,” Nico said, “she could have taken the Basin to stop him…”
“Or she took it to help him,” I countered.
Then I shook my head, instincts prickling at the wrongness of that statement. “But Emilia doesn’t bend the knee to anyone, least of all that sniveling monk.” No, she had nothing but contempt for Giovanni, which was why none of this felt right.
“No,” Gabriel agreed. “But she does what she believes is necessary, and she bleeds for this Dynasty. If she thought controlling the Basin was the only way to stop Giovanni…”
“She would have taken it out of play.” Nico was nodding along. “Makes sense. Which means she could still be an ally. Shit, Emberline wanted to do the same thing.”
I looked between them, irritation spiking. “We’re going in circles. We have to know what side she’s on, instead of theorizing this to death.”
“Then we find out.” When I shot him an incredulous look, Gabriel spread his hands. “What? We go to the island, poke around. If the Basin is there, it should be easy enough to find a thousand-year-old monolithic, powerful, half-sentient artifact oozing magic all over the place.”
“That’s not how it works,” Nico snapped. “The Basin doesn’tooze.”
“And you’ve never been to the DiSangue island,” I warned, skin prickling at the memory of what happened the last time we’d arrived there uninvited. “We have, and trust me, if Emilia catches us trying to sneak through her wards, we’re fucked.”
My brother snorted. “We’ll just talk our way…”
“She told us if we came back uninvited, she’d kill us,”Nico said plainly. “And I believe her, but sure, go ahead, test those boundaries and get yourself fried to a crisp.”
“We’re going,” my ever-stubborn brother decided.
I dragged my hands down my face. He was right.
We had to know where Emilia landed because if she stood against us, we were fucked. And there was no way Emberline would stay behind, which meant we were all fucking going together, which meant…it was up to me to protect them all from all the dangers waiting for us.
“I can get us past the wards,” I offered, wondering if I’d totally lost my godsdamned mind, “If the Basin is there, then we know she’s involved. We’d still have to decide whether she’s protecting the Dynasty or helping Giovanni, but we’d at least know where the damn thing is.”
Gabriel studied me for a long moment. “You can get us in?”
I rubbed my hand over the pagan tattoos, the new scars breaking them apart. The heat prickling over my skin in anticipation of being free.
I didn’t have to let the demon out completely. If I could access enough of the magic to get us through the wards and keep the thing locked down, this could work.
