Hallways stretched out around us like a maze while priests attacked from all sides, dropped by a knife, a bullet, awell-placed strike. Behind us, fire roared and roared like a dragon. Dante was chaos personified, and while part of me wanted to go back and help him, I knew I’d die in that room.
Bursting out into the open air felt like surfacing from drowning. The boat was still there—thank the gods—surrounded by a contingent of priests who darted toward us when they saw us escaping. Between the three of us and our guards, we finished them off, jumped in the boat, and tore away from the dock.
“What about Dante?” I yelled over the roar of the boat motor.
“He can take care of himself,” Nico yelled back, just as a ball of flame erupted over the arched roofline of the temple. “See? Stop worrying.”
Only when the island faded into the distance did reality sweep in with terrible finality.
Emilia wasn’t dead, but she was gone, and Vincenzo was in charge. Weak, spineless Vincenzo, who’d caved to my uncle or Lord Blackwood, and tomorrow…
Gabriel had a council meeting to attend.
One that would decide his fate.
63
GABRIEL
The Dominico library was the last fucking place I wanted to be right now, but Nico and Emberline had me cornered. The Don of the Dynasty, granted tremendous power, lectured by his most trusted soldier and the female he loved.
“You know this is a trap, right?” Nico leaned down, peering into my face like I was a toddler needing a stern talking to,and fuck him. “Bruno laid the threat out plainly enough. They’re drawing you out into the open so he can assassinate you.”
“He can try. Even without Emilia, we still have three votes to his two, no matter how he plays this.”
“Unless you die,” Emberline pointed out, her voice breathless. “There’s an assassin, Gabriel. You need to listen to reason.”
I wanted to tell them both everything would be alright. That this meeting would take place on Dominico territory, that our family had ruled this Dynasty since the first day. I wasn’t afraid of her uncle. And I wasn’t afraid of Vincenzo, either.
“This won’t go the way you think, Gabriel,” she cautioned, brown eyes full of worry. “Giovanni wouldn’t call a council meeting and drag all this out into the open unless he had a foolproof plan for success.”
“He doesn’t know we have Rocco in our pocket.”
“We don’t know if you have the old bastard in our pocket,” Nico pointed out stubbornly. “He’s unreliable, even when we have him backed into a corner.Especiallywhen we have him backed into a corner.”
“Doesn’t matter.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “They are not chasing me away. This is my birthright, and I am claiming it. I refuse to let these fucking traitors intimidate me. We have the numbers, as Giovanni is about to find out.”
Emberline touched my arm, dark eyes gleaming with worry. “My uncle is always ten steps ahead, Gabriel. You have to assume he’d made arrangements for tomorrow, either to kill you or outmaneuver you. Either way, your best approach could be to lie low, wait for him to come after the Basin, then fight him on your own terms.”
I put my hand over hers. “Giovanni is desperate if he’s asking Vincenzo for help. He’s lost you as leverage, he’s lost the Basin, he’s lost all possibility of controlling this Dynasty as he’d hoped. Desperate males make mistakes, and I’m about to bury him while he’s weak. Publicly.”
She sighed. “Just make sure he doesn’t bury you, instead.”
Council was heldin the Sala del Giuramento.
My territory. Dominico land since this city was nothing but mud.
I was firmly in my element. Nico and Dante prowled the upper balconies, and even though I’d asked her—nicely—to stay on the island, Emberline was up there somewhere,knife in hand, hunting down any threats her uncle may have planted.
Her brother, despite his begging, remained on the island.Nottied to a chair, but it had been a close thing.
Severin took his usual golden chair to my right while a smug as fuck Giovanni commandeered Luca’s, hands folded primly in his lap, monk’s robe on full display for anyone who still gave a shit about his pious act.
As expected, a black-robed Vincenzo took his mother’s seat, his brother standing behind him, then we waited for Rocco.
Rocco, my ace in the hole.
Rocco, who’d better keep his fucking oath of fealty, or I would take more than his hand as punishment.
