“The kid’s too unpredictable, and you’d never get him alone.AndEmberline would carve off your balls for involving her brother in anything dangerous. We leave Luca out of this for now.”
“I do like my balls right where they are,” He made a low grunt, looking as bleak as I felt.
Sucked when you were out of options.
Sucked worse for Dante, though, trapped in the Fossa, tortured by the Overseer, whose mission in life was to break him. My friend was tough, but four weeks in that place… four weeks was a lifetime.
A bell tolled the hour somewhere deep in the city. The wind off the lagoon carried the distant reek of petrol, the smell of rain heading our way.
I flicked the parchment into the water, watching the paper soak up the dark water, then sink.
“I put out some feelers around Algiers, and one of my old contacts is keeping his eyes open,” I offered. “If he hears anything, he’ll let me know. But I feel like…” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “We can’t wait much longer. We have to get into that palazzo.”
“Giovanni’s hosting a mourning ball to honor Emberline’sdeath.” Gabriel grit out through clenched teeth. “If you can get inside, that would be the night.”
7
EMBERLINE
If there was one thing Giovanni DiRavello loved more than secrets, it was spectacle.
Tonight, he would turn my death into the latter, and I was going to use his smug arrogance to my advantage. He’d killed me, after all.
I might as well capitalize on my own godsdamned death.
A month had passed since my empty casket was paraded past the entire Dynasty and burned on a pyre. Tonight, my uncle was hosting a mourning ball in honor of his poor, beloved niece, taken from this life too soon.
How sweet of him to care.
I stared out over the dark lagoon at the glowing city, deciding how much I was willing to pay to save my husband.
Any price.
I would give Emilia anything she asked, so long as I ended up with the location of the Fossa at the end of tonight. We’d exhausted all our other options, and this was the only way.
Still, no sense in seeming overly eager.
“What do you want in return for granting me this favor?” I asked, fingers drumming on the baluster, a bead of sweat tracing my backbone. I was taking a huge risk, but something told me Dante was running out of time.
Uncle Gio knew the Fossa’s location.
And chances were that information was locked in the safe in Father’s old study.
Emilia DiSangue came up beside me, her hands resting lightly on the stone, red silk sleeves fluttering in the breeze, her dress cut down to her navel. With her dark hair piled on top of her head and lips painted the color of blood, the Queen of the Occult looked more like a bored, in-demand courtesan than the most dangerous female in the D’Immortali Dynasty.
She tilted her head, studying me with such cruel concentration that even that dark place inside me shivered beneath her regard.
“I need to get inside that palazzo.Tonight.Suffice it to say, you can add this favor to my already long list of debts I owe you. Think of it as a loan you can collect on whenever the time is right.”
At the rate I was going, a loan I would never be able to repay, but bringing my husband back home would be worth the cost.
“If you are discovered, then I will never collect,” she pointed out. “The Draconi Brotherhood guards every inch of the palazzo. The probability you will discover anything useful tonight is… slim. Though I heard he had our finest artist paint your memorial portrait. They say the rendition is very… flattering.”
I snorted. “I don’t give a flying fuck about a painting. I want my husband back.”
“He’s been rehearsing his speech at council,” she added as if I hadn’t said a thing, red lips curling. “Lots of talk about sacrifice and duty. About the DiRavello line standing strong despite such a tragic loss. Your brother will be there.” She slid those black as coal eyes my way. “Twins have a way of knowing one another, no matter the illusion. I can make you look like someone else, but Luca… he may recognize you.”
“He won’t,” I said, gripping the cool edge of the railing until my knuckles went white.Luca wouldn’t recognize me because I’ll stay as far away from him as possible.
