“We are scouring the city, Don,” one of them said. “We have leads on your nephew. He was last spotted on the Dominico island. Soldiers have boots on the ground as of right now. We’ll have him shortly, sire.”
“Do you hear that?” Giovanni turned to me. “You’ve sentenced your brother to death with your foolishness. All you had to do wasobey, and you couldn’t even do that properly.”
“I should be running this empire, Uncle, not taking orders from the likes of you.”
“You?” he sneered. “A female in charge?” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe those words had come out of my mouth. “That wasnevergoing to happen. You, Emberline, are unfit to lead. Just look at you. Walking in here unprepared, foolish enough to think you had outsmartedme.”
“Then tell me, Uncle.” My smile sharpened. “What will you do with your newfound power? Being a male and all, you must have such grand plans for the future.”
For a moment, he debated. But I knew my uncle, and he could never resist a chance to grandstand in front of a captive audience.
“First, I’ll eradicate the Dominico bloodline, down to the last child. Stamp their names from the record books, erase them from time itself.”
“Sounds like you’re jealous.” I tipped my head. “Six hundred years is an awfully long time to hold a petty grudge. Maybe they’ll putthatin the record books.”
Color bloomed in his doughy cheeks, “I’ll execute your husband first, once I get my hands on him. There are ways I can kill him that will give you nightmares, so if I were you, I would keep that smart mouth shut.”
“What about the rest of us?” I prompted. “Are you planning to execute all of us, too?”
“You well know my plan since you stole the Basin. Once you are enthralled, you will become the obedient little niece I’ve always wanted, willing to carry out my every order. You will kill whoever I wish, whenever I wish, and you will marry who I wish to form a strong alliance.Thatis your role in life, Emberline. A broodmare for the cause. Nothing more.”
“Good to know you have my life all figured out.” I smiled serenely, even though I wanted to puke.
Like the floodgates had opened up, Giovanni kept talking, everything pouring out, tinged with jealous, petty rage, and a weak male’s insecurities.
“Severin will die, of course, for his insolence at that meeting, and Emilia… she will remain in stasis. She is far too unpredictable to be walking around.”
“You mean she’s a threat to your megalomaniacal plans?” I asked politely. “Who knew you were so thin-skinned, Uncle? Your feelings get hurt, and you smash up all your toys and flip over the table. Sounds more like a temper tantrum than a master plan to me.”
I met his gaze without blinking.
Let him see I wasn’t the niece he’d drowned beneath this palazzo.
Giovanni exhaled slowly, and whatever flicker of emotion had slipped through vanished beneath that polished calm. “You are finished, Emberline,” he murmured as a new set of footsteps rang down the hallway.
The stride was crisp and sure, the sharp clack of an expensive shoe against polished marble.
And then…
“I believe you remember Lord Blackwood?”
66
DANTE
By the time Luca and I dragged the last unconscious body into the shadow of a crumbling stone wall, I was one breath away from abandoning our plan entirely, heading to the DiRavello palazzo, and tearing Giovanni apart with my bare hands.
“She shouldn’t have gone in there alone,” I muttered, wiping blood—someone else’s—off my hands. “Not with him.”
Luca didn’t look up from the body he was checking for weapons. “She didn’t go alone,” he reminded me calmly. “She wanted to, but she agreed to back up, which, from my sister, is a big concession.”
“Nico doesn’t count.”
“Oh, he counts,” Luca said evenly. “You just don’t like the idea because it’s not you.”
This fucking kid. Mouthy. So godsdamned mouthy.
I fixed him with a glare that should have had him pissing himself, but he just lowered his head and waited. “Not against Giovanni,” I snapped. “Not in his own house where he’s got the full weight of the Brotherhood backing him up.”
