The demon tried to explode, but I held him back. Bringing this house down around me wouldn’t help my wife, and there were people inside. Loyal servants.Family.
Emberline was gone, and she was in danger, and I needed to think clearly.She wasn’t on the island. In fact, I couldn’t pinpoint her location, not even through our blood bond.
Cold settled in my gut.
“No,” I muttered, stepping further inside. “No, no…”
I could still smell her. See the imprint of her body in the bed.
But through the bond—nothing. I reached for that tether instinctively, grasping for the thread that had never failed me before.Ember. Answer me. Where are you? Only a hollow, yawning silence answered, and my heart seized in my chest.
Gabriel stepped into the room, his presence calm, controlled. The heir, fully assuming his new role as Don,two soldiers flanking him. “What happened? Where is Emberline?”
I rounded on him, the words tearing out of me. “They took her, they drugged her, and I can’t sense her through the bond; it’s like our connection has been cut off.”
“They knew we were distracted.” His gaze swept the space in a single, efficient pass, jaw clenching—the twisted sheets, the disturbed bedding, the open door. He turned to the soldiers. “Do a head count, I want to know who the fuck this was. Find Nico, tell him I need him at the house,” he snapped over his shoulder. “Now.”
They scattered instantly.
I tore through the castle like a storm unleashed, ripping open doors, shoving past anyone who got in my way. Every room. Every corridor. Every shadowed corner, muttering to myself the entire time. By the time Gabriel and I regrouped in the outer courtyard, my pulse hammered, the thin air doing nothing to cool the heat building under my skin.
I needed it to pour down rain. I needed to submerge myself in the lagoon before I imploded.
“We have to find her,” I growled, gripping my brother’s shirt, shaking him. “This was Giovanni. He’s after the Basin. He’ll hurt her, Gabriel, and we have to get to her before he does.”
My mind was chaos, my emotions twisted wreckage. The ifrit was playing a waiting game, looking for my moment of weakness, and when that happened…
“You and Nico have to go after them. I can’t…” I swallowed down my pride. “Lock me up, lock me away. I’m dangerous. I’m no use to her, not like this.” I was babbling, driven by a primal fear that stole my breath.
My brother wrapped his hands around my wrists and slammed me against the wall.
“You will get your shit together and stop talking nonsense. If Giovanni did this, where would he take her?” Gabriel demanded, and only then did I see the fear in his eyes, the same as was in mine. “Think,Dante. Where do we start searching?”
“He… he wouldn’t take her to the palazzo.” I dragged a hand down my face, trying to force my thoughts into something resembling order. “The ruined abbey is compromised. Their family island is a possibility.”
I turned away, pacing fast enough to grind gravel beneath my boots. I reached for the bond again, shoving violently against that empty space like I could force the silence to answer.
Nothing.
Nico burst into the courtyard. His keen gaze flicked between us, taking in the tension, the way the entire house had shifted into something chaotic and unstable.
“A soldier told me there was trouble. What happened?” he asked.
“Ember’s gone,” I said flatly.
“Taken,” Gabriel added. “Likely within the last ten minutes.”
“Fuck,” Nico breathed, “Did they hurt her? How many? Do we know where?” He whirled to me. “Where is she?”
It pissed me off that he was so afraid. Pissed me off that he thought he had the right to fear for my wife as I did.
“I can’t feel her,” I said, forcing my admission out through clenched teeth. “I should be able to… but she’s…” I cut myself off, dragging in a rough inhale. “Our bond has gone dark. I can’t feel her at all.”
I couldn’t explain how our bond worked; it just did. I’d heard of bonds like this.Mating bonds. But I never calledours by that name. Somehow, I figured I was tempting fate if I called it anything at all.
“Dark? What does that mean, dark?” he repeated.
“She’s not dead,” I said quickly, just the words making my stomach turn. “This is different. The connection is still there, it’s just… blocked at the other end. By magic.”
