“Gabriel.” Vincenzo kept his hands in his pockets. “I didn’t think we’d see you until tomorrow at the council meeting.”
“Council meeting?” Gabriel’s brow knit together.
“The special meeting Giovanni called to vote in the next Don, after your father’s tragic death.” His gleaming smile sparkled with spite. “You didn’t think your ascension was a foregone conclusion, did you? Great power changes handsso seldom, so perhaps you’re just… out of touch with the current state of things.”
Gabriel stiffened, his back rigid. Nico moved closer, and so did Dante, flanking him while I studied Emilia. She seemed unharmed—there was faint color in her cheeks, and she didn’t look to be in distress.
“What happened here? Why is your mother in stasis?” Gabriel bore down on the brothers, his tone lethal. “Is she alive?”
“For now.” Vincenzo smiled. “She’s safe enough. Untouched. Unable to be manipulated by outside forces.”
Ah. Outside forces like us.
Subtly, Nico shifted closer to the platform, eyes scanning the space around Emilia’s body, his expression darkening. “This is no natural stasis. There’s evidence of magic being used to keep her unconscious.”
“To help her relax. Mother tends to fight the blessed sleep,” Vincenzo said lightly, but my eyes were on Paulo, chewing on his thumb, his dark eyes flicking between his mother’s unconscious form and his brother.
Stasis was uncommon—a state of deep unconsciousness used to heal terrible injuries or for vampires needing to survive unsurvivable situations, like extreme weather or starvation. I’d heard of vampires spending a hundred years in this state.
I stepped forward, heart pounding. “Wake her up. We’ve discovered something vital to the state of the Dynastyandto your Order. Proof she needs to see.”
Okay, so I was stretching the truth, but I wasn’t about to tell these assholes anything until I spoke directly to Emilia.
“And you brought this proof with you?” Vincenzo asked. More priests filed into the room, lining the walls around us. The air hummed with repressed magic, those sigils glowingbrighter. “If so, I would like to verify its authenticity myself.”
“I wouldn’t show you the menu to a pizza parlor,” Gabriel snapped. “Wake up Emilia, and we will speak with her. I don’t trust you,” he said plainly. “Either of you. And this whole thing,”—he swept his blue eyes over the assembled priests—“this reeks of treason.”
And here I’d thoughtIwasn’t in a diplomatic mood.
“Vincenzo.” I smiled, ignoring the way Dante was rumbling behind me. Not that I blamed him. Priests blocked every doorway. We were trapped at the moment, and while I had great faith in my husband’s ability to burn this place to the ground, I also knew everyone on this island possessed powers of their own.
Powers I did not want to test.
“Your mother and I had a misunderstanding not so long ago,” I explained in a reasonable tone. “This information is a peace offering. Me trying to put things right. If you can’t wake her today, then perhaps we should come back at a better time.”
“My mother was a fool to trust you. None of you will ever set foot on our island again,” Paulo warned. “Give my brother the papers in your pocket, or we will take them by force.”
For a moment, I just blinked, unable to believe Paolo DiSangue had actuallythreatenedus, the sniveling little shit.
“I see your thoughts, Emberline.” He looked like a rat, gnawing at his thumb. “Those letters cannot leave this place.”
This little fucker could read minds?
“There’s no reason for this to get ugly,” Vincenzo cut in smoothly. “So, give them to me, or like my brother said, we will take them. Look around you. You’re outnumbered.”
Nico stepped closer, his body a wall of muscle behind me, while Gabriel pressed himself against my other side, both of them tensed and ready to move. “Try to take them, and see what happens, you little fucks,” Nico snarled.
“Fine, have it your way.” Vincenzo lifted his hand, and priests flooded the room like a living shadow, crimson sigils flaring, magic sparking at their fingertips, the air ripe with ozone as they pounced.
The momentthe first priest put hands on me, Dante erupted.
Flames roared to life, sweeping outward in a blazing arc that forced them to fall back, robes igniting, skin blistering, the very air screaming. Heat slammed into me, sharp and blistering, but Nico was already there, throwing up a wall of shadow, and I could breathe again.
“Stay with me.” He grabbed my arm, pulling me behind him as shadows wrapped around me, him, and Gabriel like a shield. To our right, the doorway was—mostly—clear, except for a few smoldering bodies to leap over.
“Both of you, stay close. We have to get to the boat,” Nico ordered, his voice tight, eyes focused on the route ahead, a narrow gauntlet of doorways and shadows.
We moved fast, Gabriel crowding behind us in the narrow corridor, the three of us moving in a bubble of darkness, the screams behind us intensifying, along with the reek of burning flesh.
