“Do you think he’s still alive? I’ve asked myself a thousand times, and I’m not sure I like the answer anymore.” Tears clung to her long, dark lashes, and it took every bit of my self-control not to wrap myself around her like a shield against a world determined to hurt her.
“Yes.” I made myself sure, the word a pledge of certainty as I touched my chest, fingers resting over my racing heart. “The bond between us hasn’t snapped.”
For a long moment, she stared at me, as if deciding whether or not to trust me, then finally took a long, shuddering inhale and nodded, a tear slipping down her pale cheek.
My fingers flexed with the need to wipe it off her face.
“But our connection is… muffled.” My voice was low as I went on, “like he’s buried under layers of stone. Some days I feel nothing, and then... then I feel the bastard shove back. Stubborn until the bitter end.”
Hope flared in those beautiful brown eyes as she nodded, and that tight, squeezing pain intensified in my chest, an ache that felt wonderful and awful and impossible. Her hair was curled around her face from the humidity, and she had dusty marks on her knees where she’d knelt while tracking her uncle.Alone.
I could barely swallow around my fear.
I should lock her up. Keep her safe. Even when I knew that was a fool’s dream.
“Nico will be back in two days. This time, he’ll have a lead. All we need is something to point us in the right direction, and we’ll bring him back. In the meantime, we keep up the act. You’re dead. I’m my father’s loyal heir. If we fuck this up, Emberline, they’ll come after us. Dante won’t be aprisoner; he’ll be a bargaining chip. Or worse, a liability to be erased.”
My stomach turned at the thought of losing either of them.
“You think Giovanni would have him killednow?” Her voice was high.
“I think,” I said slowly, “if Giovanni were even half as smart as he thinks he is, he would have killed Dante the moment they captured him. No complicated plots. No gloating. Just a blade, a grave in the dirt, and a toast to his success.”
She sank into the nearest seat, white as a ghost. “But he didn’t,” she shuddered, fingers gripping the arms of the chair. “Giovanni wanted him to suffer. So, he left him alive.”
She looked so lost, I sent up a prayer to the gods.Gods, please let him be alive.
Please don’t let her slip away from me. I’ve seen the darkness in her eyes, the way she sits for hours, staring out at nothing. The silver crescent outlining her irises. I can keep her safe from many things, but wherever she goes to inside her head…
I cannot follow.
“For now,” I muttered, silence spreading between us, thick and heavy.
Bile rose in my throat at the idea of Dante chained and collared in some bloodied arena, forced to fight for amusement. The idea of him trapped in a private cell, tortured and stubborn to the very end, refusing to die just to spite them, hurt even more.
It took me fifty years to free him before, and this time… this time, Giovanni made it personal. Bribes wouldn’t free my brother, not even a kingdom’s worth.
“I hate this.” She tipped her head back against the top of the chair.
“I know,” I said. “You and me both.”
“I dream about killing Gio,” she admitted, staring up at the ceiling, eyes following the long crack that went from corner to corner. “Killing Marcello. Face-to-face, so they know who is bringing them down. I want them tofeeltheir empires crumble. I want them to suffer like I did when they took Dante from me.”
“I do too,bella.” I sighed, sinking into the chair beside her.I laid my hand over hers, so small and pale, yet calloused as any Draconi soldier’s. “But if we rush in unprepared, we lose everything. Our leverage. The element of surprise. Dante didn’t spend years planning this just so we could die as martyrs to the cause. We have to take them both down together, and we have to survive.”
“Here I thought Nico was the patient one,” she muttered, staring down at our hands, but making no move to pull away. “But you’re surprisingly good at playing the long game.”
I huffed out a humorless laugh. “I’ve spent fifty years playing the dutiful son and learning this business. We have to settle this politically. I reminded Nico that without Severin and the Brotherhood on our side, without Emilia’s and Rocco’s support, we don’t stand a chance against your uncle.”
She curled her fingers around mine, so dainty, yet so strong, and again, the world shifted, a realignment of the cosmos, reminding me I was right where I wanted to be.
“Your father… he seemed healthy enough at the Blood Compact. That was barely a month ago. What’s changed?” she asked. “I’ve never heard of a vampire declining so fast, especially not an Ancient.”
“Life, maybe?” I huffed out a hollow laugh. “I don’t know. He’s barely able to get around. Perhaps he’s been hiding hisillness from everyone, or maybe six centuries of greed have finally caught up to him.”
“Both are probably true.” Emberline peered over at me, outlined by the faintest glow from the fire. She looked exhausted. Hollowed out. She needed to stop spending every night on the rooftops of Venice, hunting her uncle. She needed sleep.
She needed to feed.
